In a recent op-ed, Tom Daschle repeatedly invokes a baseball metaphor when discussing government-run health care. His apparent aim is to make it seem as American as baseball or apple pie. But government-run health care is really about as American as government-owned Chevrolet--and would prove even less beneficial to America's future.

Ronald Reagan said that "outside of its legitimate functions, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector." He believed the American people knew this as well. But that knowledge is exactly what Daschle, President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and Senator Reid hope we no longer have--or will soon unlearn.

Sticking with Daschle's baseball metaphor, here are the three strikes against President Obama's health-care plan: One, it would force millions of Americans off of employer-provided insurance. Two, it would run private insurers out of business. Three, it would eventually lead to a government monopoly and rationed care.

The centerpiece of ObamaCare is the "public option," a form of Medicare for all. President Obama and the Democratic Congress are pitching it as a way to give individuals and families a new choice. But the pitch is high and outside, and nowhere near the plate.

Under a widespread "public option" with Medicare-like reimbursement rates, the Lewin Group estimates 118 million Americans would lose their private health insurance. The government would allow employers to contribute to the "public option" at a lower price-tag than the cost of continuing to offer private insurance.

Like a government-run General Motors, a government-run "public option" would enjoy nearly limitless taxpayer financing, thus giving it a huge unfair advantage. Unlike with GM, however, the "public option" would be able to set prices for care through government regulation, rather than paying the market-prices its competitors pay. Private insurance wouldn't be able to compete.

On average, Medicare pays 81 cents on the dollar for care. This doesn't fly in other realms. One can't merely declare that a government-built Chevy will now cost 81 percent as much as competitors' models. One actually has to make a car that can be sold at that price. But no such limits apply if government can merely dictate the prices charged by others.

Once private insurers are driven out of the market, medical professionals will no longer be able to shift costs to them, and the government will have only one option to cut costs: ration care.

The irony, for an administration that seems to have little empathy for the rich, is that this health-care policy would produce a two-tiered system favoring the very rich. The rich will still pay for the care they want--whether here or abroad--out of their own pockets. The rest of us will stand in line and wait for rationed care.