An amendment offered by Rep. Burgess, R-TX., would remove the public plan from the new Democratic health reform proposal, preventing it from crowding out private health insurance programs. The current government health plan is granted numerous insurmountable advantages over private insurers. These include nearly unlimited access to tax-payer funds, exemptions from state and local taxes, the ability to undercut healthcare providers--passing costs on to private insurers, exemptions from financial stability requirements, and protections from trial lawyers. The advantages afforded to the government plan will inevitably drive private insurers out of the market, trapping Americans in a centralized, bureaucratic, government healthcare system subject to longer wait times, care-rationing, and regressive price controls. For the text of this amendment, click here.