What is it the majority of Americans know that Paul Krugman doesn’t?
A message to House Democrats: This is your moment of truth. You can do the right thing and pass the Senate health care bill. Or you can look for an easy way out, make excuses and fail the test of history.
Oh no, ObamaCare didn’t pass. The sky is falling!
I wonder if Paul Krugman is secretly on the editorial board of the Syracuse Post Standard. [Emphasis mine.]
It is the bitterest irony that the apparent death blow to the elusive dream of universal health care came from Massachusetts, a state that already enjoys its own version of health care for all.Even worse is that it came in the race for the Senate seat of Ted Kennedy, who died believing the end of his decades-long quest for comprehensive health care reform was at hand.
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This page did not share that view. [The view of millions of Americans.] The legislation was far from perfect — it did not have strong enough measures to constrain medical costs and it contained a boatload of compromises, including a few sweetheart deals for Democratic senators who threatened to withhold their support. But it would have extended health insurance to more than 30 million uninsured Americans, eliminated the barbaric practice of insurance companies denying coverage to people with “pre-existing conditions,” and included an array of pilot projects that, if successful, could be adopted to hold down costs. All that, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, without increasing the deficit.
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But the president and Congress should not give up on health care reform; they should take a deep breath and dive back in. The expensive and inequitable health insurance system in this country remains a disgrace — a disgrace that is financially unsustainable.
Wow. Those are some harsh words coming from the editorial board. Something tells me none of them have ever run a business or have any clue how insurance works.
First of all, that “barbaric” practice of denying coverage for preexisting conditions is the only way the companies can remain viable. I might possibly support some sort of rule where they can’t deny coverage to those who have been responsible and carried insurance for most of their lives, and possibly even young adults who were previously children and unable to buy their own coverage. But if all insurers are required to cover everybody with no exceptions, people will wait until they’re ill to purchase a policy. It’s as simple as that. The only way to get around that is an unconstitutional mandate forcing individuals to purchase policies.
Second of all, the reason health insurance is so expensive is because treatment is expensive. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out. And when insurers are mandated to cover everything from Viagara to hair plugs it only makes it more expensive. Just think, if the government never got involved in health insurance we could buy policies across state lines. We could choose the level of coverage we want. Health insurance wouldn’t be tied to employment and would probably be portable. Government created this mess, and we’re supposed to trust them to fix it?
President Obama likes to talk about people having “skin in the game” when he’s trying to redistribute the wealth. So why not have some skin in the game when it, literally, comes to one’s own skin? Why shouldn’t we contribute to the cost of our own well being?
The only way to control costs is to ration care. Why do you think there are long waiting lists for procedures in the UK and Canada? Which brings me back to the fairness issue that I brought up earlier.
What gets me is the whole “controlling costs” thing. In my mind, that means those of us who have worked our entire lives – sometimes in jobs we don’t particularly enjoy – to provide health insurance for our families, will have our health care rationed to compensate for those who didn’t – for whatever reason. It boils down to the whole fairness issue. How is it fair to ration health care for those who did everything right to make up for those who did everything wrong?
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