TW: about this family- the carousing, the deviousness, the Freudian petrie dishiness of the whole thing- but Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy created a family with some talent. That Edward was the only son to die of natural causes is amazing in and of itself given their exploits.
2 comments:
I'm posting a comment here because the other thread was getting too long to scroll through.
You ask about my "beloved" consumer-driven insurance and how it would control costs.
"Beloved" is far too strong a word. But in addition to the strengths of such a plan, it has something else big going for it: If it doesn't work, it's easy to reverse or change or "reform."
If your type of plan goes forward, we're stuck with it forever. There's no such thing as rollng back government entitlements. And from what we've seen of Medicare (indeed, what you yourself have documented) and its financial balance sheet, there's good reason to think we would don't want to be stuck with universal care.
How do I see a free market solution playing out? Yeesh. There are a lot of think tanks at work on this and when I get to a less foggy-head moment, I might be able to say more about what I see in the specifics.
For now, though, how about this guy's approach?
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200909/health-care
The essay isn't too terribly great because he begins and ends with a complaint about infections in hospitals. But his basic question is an excellent one, and it goes directly to the heart of medical costs: Why do we use health insurance the way we use health insurance?
I'll let him make his case instead of paraphrasing here. (And for what it's worth, he claims to be a Dem.) His parallel example is Lasix surgery, which insurance does not cover, and how the free market and consumer choice have driven the cost of the procedure way down while the technology itself has vastly improved.
What could this model do for MRI's????
I have skimmed the article before, it is long, will read when I get a chance and comment on the Lasix.
Your stance is universal care is too expensive? Just for those under 65 or everyone?
What again do you wish to cut from the budget?
A post later today speaks of TR Reid's book on foreign plans. Many foreigners feel they incent innovation as well with their own pricing structures which somehow provide universal care whilst keeping overall costs lower.
As for rationing, if there is no cost/benefit analysis then how is the cost benefit managed, is there any cap on costs? Inherently they must be.
Why is a private insurer better positioned to ration?
You think entrenched private interests are "easy to reform/change" and government programs are not. Nope.
Part of our problem with health caree is a hybrid of systems with entrenched interests public and private highly resistant to change.
Have more but trying to keep these a bit shorter...
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