Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said a government health insurance plan being advocated by the Obama Adminstration will mean the end of private insurers.

Newt Gingrich

Appearing on CBS’ Face the Nation June 7, Gingrich, a Republican who represented Georgia’s Sixth District in the House of Representatives for 20 years, told moderator Harry Smith that the government may not be the best overseer of health care.

“If you think the government can’t run General Motors, why would you think they can run health care?…[A government-sponsored insurance company is] just the first step toward a national health system,” he said according to a transcript of the program. “I mean, they will absolutely use that model… to destroy all the insurance companies and get to a national health system.”

Gingrich said that while there may not be enough Republican votes to stop the effort, American taxpayers could be the final determining factor to the creation of public health insurance.

“I think when the average American looks at the idea that we’re going to have a government bureaucrat decide whether you get, or your daughter, or your granddaughter gets the treatment you need, if you look at the death rate from breast cancer in Great Britain and the death rate from breast cancer here, I don’t think that’s a model we’re going to accept,” he said.