Posted on 08/07/2009 3:09:31 AM PDT by yoe
I keep reading about healthcare "reform," but I have yet to see anyone explain how the government can make it easier for more people to obtain medical services, control the already exploding cost of those services, and not interfere with people's most intimate decisions.
You don't need to be a Ph.D. in economics to understand that government cannot do all three things. (Judging by what Paul Krugman writes, a Ph.D. may be an obstacle.)
The New York Times describes a key part of the House bill: "Lawmakers of both parties agree on the need to rein in private insurance companies by banning underwriting practices that have prevented millions of Americans from obtaining affordable insurance. Insurers would, for example, have to accept all applicants and could not charge higher premiums because of a person's medical history or current illness." (http://tinyurl.com/knzczq).
No more evil "cherry-picking." No more "discrimination against the sick.” But that's not insurance. Insurance is the pooling of resources to cover the cost of a possible but by no means certain misfortune befalling a given individual. Government-subsidized coverage for people already sick is welfare. We can debate whether this is good, but let's discuss it honestly. Calling welfare "insurance" muddies thinking.
Such "reform" must increase the demand for medical services. That will lead to higher prices. President Barack Obama tells us that reform will lower costs. But how do you control costs while boosting demand?
[snip] Some of the savings are supposed to come from Medicare. The Times reports "Lawmakers also agree on proposals to squeeze hundreds of billions of dollars out of Medicare by reducing the growth of payments to hospitals and many other health care providers
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
(another site from the left...) this place also has a "get Rush" type petition up....
>>>> Government-subsidized coverage for people already sick is welfare. We can debate whether this is good, but let’s discuss it honestly. Calling welfare “insurance” muddies thinking. <<<<<<
Good point by Stossel.
“Health care reform” is almost entirely about (a) providing “health welfare” to those who don’t now have it, and (b) to 25 million++ illegal aliens.
And the middle class gets to pay for it through (a) reductions in their current coverage, (b) rationing, and (c) increased costs.
I agree that it’s about the illegals. This is a two-step plan because he’s going to need that voting bloc and then we really will have one party rule from here on out. A conservative will never get elected again if he makes them citizens.
It’s the rationing that has awakened the American people.
As an eloquent speaker said at a town hall meeting the other day.
She would gladly lose the family farm to keep her dad alive. The medicine he is receiving at the Mayo Clinic is not available in Great Britain or Canada under their health plans.
Yes, people are now paying attention.
We have to keep up the good fight!
Such “reform” must increase the demand for medical services. That will lead to higher prices. President Barack Obama tells us that reform will lower costs. But how do you control costs while boosting demand?
You CAN’T. Thats why they can’t answer the question. They simply keep asserting the lie as truth. Its typical.
I don’t know how many idiotic people put forth that point and cannot say how it will happen.
But they are SURE its won’t be by rationing or anything else...no sir...bama he say so.
Idiots.
>>>> I agree that it’s about the illegals. This is a two-step plan <<<<<
I’ve been saying this for a while. Maybe a three-step plan.
First, take over banks and businesses. Dominate the economy.
Second, take over the national health care system.
Third, give American identities and (health, welfare, voting) benefits to 25 million++ illegals.
Make the American middle-class pay for all of it through increased taxes (on the middle-class), reduced services (to the middle-class), and rationing (for everyone, but which which will be a big step up for Third World peasants with their new American identities and “Z Visas”).
The problem is that reform is undefined. The natural outcome of the market is improvement or innovation. What we have had for decades now is a reformed system nominally under government control through fiat/mandates/direct payments.
Real reform would move us away from the current system toward a freer one.
>>> The problem is that reform is undefined. <<<<<
This is the reason for my tag line “Congress is at war with America.”
If you consider it from their perspective, the goal on Capitol Hill is not “reform” (how could it be when they don’t even know what’s in the bill), but the act of PASSING THE BILL.
Getting along, passing bills, trading favors.
The U.S. Congress demonstrably does not have any idea what it’s doing, and it does not care whit about the ensuing damage.
The problem is not really Zer0 alone, but the totally out-of-control and over-the-top United States Congress.
Congress must be reined in and stopped.
That is an astute observation. Too many FReepers act like getting rid of Obama will bring in a new dawn and halcyon days for America. Unless we get Congress and the bureaucracy back within their Constitutional bounds we'll continue to see erosion in our country.
We have a political class that does not suffer the consequences of their bad decisions. They make money, get health care, and are protected despite the ruinous effects of their laws and policies.
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