Pure madness. Beyond madness, reckless irresponsibility.
Let’s say you want to expand access to insurance–which I believe is a laudable goal. There are very simple ways to do it, without euthanizing a system that for most people is working very well. You could expand Medicare to permit people to buy in at, say, age 55. That would bring relative healthy people into the program who would be less likely to need expensive services. You could give grants to states, or contract with private companies, to create local health clinics to provide basic care charging fees based on ability to pay. You could open the country as a national market and give vouchers to help people buy their own private insurance, coupled with a mandate to purchase insurance, since many of the uninsured are voluntarily uninsured, preferring to buy flat screen TVs or consumer goods rather than insurance. You would at least take it slowly, do the least necessary to attain the goal of expanded basic care to make sure you didn’t make things worse instead of better.
But that would not allow you to brazenly grab power. So, instead we get a $1.5 billion, 1000 page health care plan, the details of which our representatives may vote for without even having read (as we have seen in other areas of public policy since President Obama was inaugurated). And it will be hard for us to engage in democratic debate because our sickly media won’t even be able to report or keep track on what is in the bill.
But make no mistake, we are on the path toward empowering utilitarian bioethicists, who you and your doctor don’t even know, to decide what treatments you can have and indeed, when you have to die We are on the path to rationing. We are on the path to health care costs being the catch all excuse for the government to control your personal behaviors–at least those without strong political constituencies–under the pretext of keeping costs low.
I repeat, this isn’t a health care plan, it is a power grab. Rather that rushing it throught, we should slow it down. This is too important to get wrong.
July 15th, 2009 | 7:53 pm
Maybe I am the exception rather than the rule (I honestly don’t know), but I bet there are other young, healthy people like me looking at health insurance and realizing that at this stage they are far more likely to default on their Stafford loans — which would also be a huge pain for the govenrment — than they are to be hospitalized, and that it doesn’t make sense to pay thousands in non-refundable premiums for something they probably won’t use anytime soon. If Congress is going to micromanage, the least they could do is give me the option of putting it in a competitive savings account instead.
July 16th, 2009 | 7:45 am
“But make no mistake, we are on the path toward empowering utilitarian bioethicists, who you and your doctor don’t even know, to decide what treatments you can have and indeed, when you have to die We are on the path to rationing….”
On the path? substitute “insurance company employees” for “bioethicists” and you have an accurate description of present-day health care delivery. To claim that government reform is going to make happen what already exists strikes me as a tortuous stretch of the imagination.
July 16th, 2009 | 9:31 am
See this important Investor’s Business Daily article:
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=332548165656854
The law would make it illegal to enter a private insurance plan if you weren’t already in one at the time the law went into effect! Outlawing new clients for private insurance, in effect. It also, the article says, is likely to be the end of HSA’s, which should be no surprise. After all, the lefties writing this just detest “fee-for-service” and practically say it with a sneer.
July 16th, 2009 | 10:10 am
College Goyl– I think you may be the rule– after I graduated, I went a year or so without insurance before I got a job that covered it… It made sense– I didn’t need to go to the DR, and if I did, it would be something like strep throat– pretty much a straight 100 bucks…
So I would have had to get sick EVERY MONTH to make the 1200/yr health plan I was offered through my first job to make sense….
A lot of the uninsured are young, healthy people with minimal health problems. At that age, it makes sense to skimp on healthcare and save up for other things. (Now my family buys excellent coverage–because we have babies, and we need to be insured in case of a preemie….)
But for a young, newly graduated woman? Unless you’re sexually active or have a family history of agressive cancers, it’s MUCH cheaper just to pay the doctor if you get sick…..
July 16th, 2009 | 1:01 pm
Thanks, Deirdre, I’m glad I’m not alone. As you probably know, somebody (names?) in Congress thinks it’s a good idea to fine people $1,000 for taking a step back from the hysteria and assessing their own risk. I’m sure they’ll try to argue that it is just like car insurance, but statistically it isn’t.
Links
Blogs
Find Us
Contact