Recently, I sent an e-mail to U.S. Sen. Susan Collins in support of a public option in the health care debate. I have received a polite reply, in which she cited a report from the “nonpartisan Lewin Group” suggesting a public option would devastate the private insurance market.

That seemed to be an outlandish argument, at odds with everything I had heard except from the most partisan of news source. So I decided to look up the “nonpartisan Lewin Group” on the Web. According to the Washington Post (July 22, 2009), the Lewin Group is owned by a health insurance company. I assume she knows this.

In other words, Collins’ argument was tantamount to citing studies from the tobacco industry (through the Tobacco Institute) to formulate policy on cigarettes; or from the oil industry (through the Global Climate Coalition) to formulate energy policy.

I had expected better of Collins. I had hoped she would be governed by reason and the interests of her constituents; that she would not parrot talking points doled out by insurance companies.

What would Margaret Chase Smith say?

James Richter, Lewiston