September 9, 2009

Health Care Reform - Onto a Tabula Not So Rasa

Monique Chartier

Under "Liveblogging the President's Healthcare Speech", Justin comments

It's almost nauseating to hear politicians argue for a "public option" on the basis that competition is so limited, when the reason is clearly government regulation and mandates.

This is an excellent point also raised recently by Andrew. Health care reform is being designed not upon the clean slate of a health care system operating under purely market conditions but upon layers of regulations built up over several decades - and not all were promulgated to advance the best interest of the consumer/patient.

Let me hasten to add here that I would be dubious at best of a health care system that operated under pure market conditions completely without regulation. But isn't it also possible to have too much of a good thing?

If, indeed, the goal is more competitive (stipulating for a moment that 1,200 insurance companies do not engender sufficient competition) and less expensive health care coverage, perhaps the best reform would be the modification or elimination of some existing regulations, not the addition of another layer.

Two items that come most readily to mind are tort reform and elimination of the barrier to buying health insurance across state lines, though the list certainly does not end there. This approach, happily, would also conform to President Obama's stated desire not to "accept the status quo as a solution". The change created by taking a red pen to certain sections of our health care law could be just as drastic as appending chapters to it.

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I enjoyed government run medical care for three years while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. I currently enjoy government run medical care from the VA. Like any U.S. citizen 65 or older I can enjoy government run medical care thru Medicare and Medicaid. All of our people on active duty in the armed services currently enjoy government run medical care, as do all of our guards-people. Federal employees may also enjoy government run medical care if they so choose, and most do.

Tell me again how offering a public option providing government run medical care as a choice among several hundred other choices will so upset our delicate free market balance of profit and medicine that it will annihilate our way of life, destroy capitalism, lead us onto the path of national destruction, turn us into communists or fascists (I think that it’s all set for Communism Monday Wednesday and Friday and Fascism Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday with Sundays off for devil worship), bring about “Death Panels”, and give the entire population a bad case of halitosis.
OldTimeLefty

Posted by: OldTimeLefty at September 10, 2009 11:12 PM
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