Health Care Reform
Paul Krugman has written a very clear, short overview of the Democratic health reform proposal. One observation: I can’t think of a single reason why anyone who supports the proposal should prefer it to an out-and-out single-payer system.
Instead of simply taxing people and paying their medical bills, the government will mandate that everyone buy “private” health coverage, then tax them and subsidize their purchase of health coverage.
Instead of creating a government agency to pay everyone’s medical bills, the proposal tightly regulates insurance companies and requires them to accept anyone who wants to buy insurance. As far as I can tell, insurance companies will be left with less decision-making power than many actual government agencies.
It’s a single-payer system administered by the lobotomized husks of former insurance companies.
Now, if you support a single-payer system, you very well might support the Democratic proposal out of political necessity. But I don’t see how this proposal has any economic advantages over single-payer. If you do, the comments are open.
I’m not going try to argue anything. Just wanted to mention that if anyone asks my view of the health care reform proposal, I’m going to say “It’s a single-payer system administered by the lobotomized husks of former insurance companies.”