The big news in the U.S. is of course health care reform. Nancy Pelosi (who actually represents my old district) held tough on her party members in the House and made it happen even when it seemed Obama's administration might have been willing to water down the bill. Here is the New York Times summary on the bill:
How the Health Care Overhual Could Affect YouSome things I like: removal of lifetime limits, non-cancellation for getting sick, higher insurance costs, requiring people to have insurance.
Seems like a strange statement to want higher costs but there's no way to legislate rationing or cost control so the backdoor solution is to increase costs to move people into higher deductible plans. Once people finally understand what it means to their bottom line, the free market has a better chance of reducing costs than any directives from above. Besides, the reality is we already pay these extra costs from taxes and outrageous bills since hospitals can't turn away the unisured. Might as well move the cost to where it can be directly linked to the overall health care system.
In short, it's really the only direction that is possible unless the Republicans are willing to put forward a plan to fully abolish health insurance. I'm willing to embrace either extreme -- move either to socialized health care or everybody only has catastrophic insurance.
(Filed in economics, health insurance)
Health Care Reform
Posted by Mossy
March 23, 2010 1:10 AM
How the Health Care Overhual Could Affect You
Some things I like: removal of lifetime limits, non-cancellation for getting sick, higher insurance costs, requiring people to have insurance.
Seems like a strange statement to want higher costs but there's no way to legislate rationing or cost control so the backdoor solution is to increase costs to move people into higher deductible plans. Once people finally understand what it means to their bottom line, the free market has a better chance of reducing costs than any directives from above. Besides, the reality is we already pay these extra costs from taxes and outrageous bills since hospitals can't turn away the unisured. Might as well move the cost to where it can be directly linked to the overall health care system.
In short, it's really the only direction that is possible unless the Republicans are willing to put forward a plan to fully abolish health insurance. I'm willing to embrace either extreme -- move either to socialized health care or everybody only has catastrophic insurance.
(Filed in economics, health insurance)
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