Ah...balance the budget by creating another dept.
Oh sure, let me tell you about Humana’s “Health Board”—they are bad enough in the private insurance industry, can you imagine how bad this would be in government??????????
Pure Koolaid!
“However benign Daschle tries to make the idea sound, just as, over time, the power of the Federal Reserve grew dramatically beyond its original intentions (ironically, the more it messed up, the more power it got) its easy to see the Federal Health Board morph into an all-powerful entity dictating every aspect of health policy over time, with limited oversight, as America marches toward a socialized system.”
This is “industrial policy” applied to health care. If industrial policy worked generally, the Soviet Union would have ended up being king of the hill. If industrial policy worked in health care, then the U.S. health system (which despite all its flaws is the most market-oriented) would never have achieved unquestioned dominance in medical innovation. Whether innovation is measured in terms of number of Nobel prizes awarded in medicine, number of patents awarded in pharmaceuticals, new medical devices or surgical techniques, the US share far exceeds in share of global GDP. But if industrial policy worked in health care, then countries such as Britain and Canada—which have exactly the kinds of centralized “expert” boards championed by Daschle—should be consistently beating the U.S. in the race to find the best techniques for preventing, diagnosing or treating disease. At a less abstract level, if industrial policy worked in health care, then politicians needing the most advanced techniques for doing brain surgery would be flying to England, Canada, France or Germany to get treated rather than staying in the US. In this regard, Senator Kennedy’s decision about where to get surgery last August sends a strong signal about just how bankrupt Daschle’s idea is.
Someone more clever than I am can figure out the exact language for a bumper sticker, but it should be something to the effect:
From the folks who engineered the financial crisis: Obamacare!
If you like the financial bailout, you’ll LOVE Obamacare!
If you want the health system to look like the financial system, support Obamacare!
If you think health care is expensive now , wait until you see what free health care costs.
Yaaa...you’ll need your Congresscritter’s approval for a colonoscopy...