John Galt's conundrum

The Republican flacks for the health insurance industry are saying just a tad more than they should have:

Five senior Republican senators, including Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the senior Republican on the Finance Committee, and the minority leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, warned the president on Thursday that the public option would face opposition from many in their party.

In a letter to Obama, they said that "forcing free market plans to compete with these government-run programs would create an unlevel playing field and inevitably doom true competition. Ultimately, we would be left with a single government-run program controlling all of the market."

So if they're required to compete with a new entity, the private "free market" plans would lose? Isn't that a tacit admission that the public plan would be cheaper?

And just how is this not "true competition"? If the private companies can't deliver the services at an attractive price, don't they deserve to go under? Calling John Galt, calling John Galt!!!