(no subject)

[sorrowmonkey]

Apparently, right behind the "anti-war" bullet on many of the left-leaning candidates that I've looked at lately, is this 'Universal Healthcare' bullet. Even assuming that 'Universal Healthcare' is a reasonable public goal (which I do not concede), there are a lot of problems I have with it.

1. Apparently, both Dan Malloy and John Destefano use a dictionary with a significantly different definition of "universal" that mine. From Miriam-Webster Online:

   Main Entry: 1uni·ver·sal
   Pronunciation: "yü-n&-'v&r-s&l
   Function: adjective
   Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin universalis, from universum universe
   1 : including or covering all or a whole collectively or distributively without limit or exception; especially : available equitably to all members of a society (universal health coverage)

   Malloy has an income cap at 300% of the Federal Poverty Level (about $50,000). Destefano has a similar 300% limit, but up to 500% for self-employed individuals ($83,000). Luckily, every family of who makes more than that is certainly already getting insurance or can afford to buy their own. Right.

   This is not "Universal Health Care," this is just a sop to the liberal base. If it was universal health care, there would be a reasonable expectation that the coverage would actually cover everyone.

2. "Universal Health Care" is not going to save money.

   The various proponents of "Universal Health Care" claim that the money saved by not having to pay for the uninsured will pay for insuring the uninsured.

   How does this make any sense?

   All "Universal Health Care" really does is shift around the responsibility for paying the bills. Currently, hospitals, doctors, and laboratories bear the brunt of uninsured costs, aside from rare infusions from the government last resort agencies. The "Universal Health Care" plan simply transfers the responsibility to treating these people from the providers to the government (i.e. the taxpayers).

3. Expanding Medicare/Medicaid to coverage every U.S. Citizen is not going to work.

   Providers have almost as much trouble collecting payment from Medicare/Medicaid as they do from the uninsured. In fact, the prices paid for cash services at hospitals, doctor's offices, and laboratories are artificially inflated to help the providers compensate for the deep discounting of Medicare/Medicaid and the insurance companies.

Health care costs money, and it is asinine to assume that we can rub the magic "insurance" lamp and health care dollars will come pouring out. As far as I can see, health care is a zero-sum game. There is a fixed cost of health care, and all we can do is gerrymander the costs around to please.

Comments

[kuzu-no-ha.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately when the medical care givers who are responsible for the bills..ie small business owners such as your father in law say "this is a bad idea" everything thinks it is because the medical people are worried they won't make as much money. But they don't realize that in the end it will mean getting a root canal done by a dental tech in a clinic who will not really have enough education or experience to do such a thing.