For me, one of the more amazing things about this health care debate is the way the press and many advocates of health care reform have accepted the notion that the fiscal objective should be to pass a health care bill that is "deficit neutral."With health care costs unsustainable, why is that an appropriate goal?Deficit neutral means that any impact of a health care bill on the federal budget
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Bob Bennett Wants to Turn "Control of Our Health Insurance System Over to the Government"–-Say What?
That’s what the Club for Growth is saying about Senator Bob Bennett’s health care proposals.Apparently, the Club for Growth has a reading comprehension problem. Or, are they just trying to twist the truth about the Utah Republican's health care efforts? The Wyden-Bennett Healthy Americans Act has to be the most pro-market health care reform proposal on the table.First, it does not have the
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The Health Reform Bills Would Be Great For the Business Of Health Care
Have you noticed how none of the big health care business special interests is running any negative health care reform ads? Why should they when each is poised to gain billions of dollars from it?As President Barack Obama has said many times, any health care bill that costs about $1 trillion would be paid for, roughly half and half, with savings in the health care system and new revenues (taxes).
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Health Care Reforms Deeper Problems
by BRIAN KLEPPER and DAVID C. KIBBENote: We were asked by Northeast Florida's regional newspaper, the Florida Times-Union, to write a piece for lay audiences distilling our thoughts on what's behind the reform curtain. This piece published this week and, while we doubt much of it will be news to this blog’s readers, we wanted to offer it up as a summary statement.Congress' health care reform
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There Will Not Be Health Care Reform in 2009 Without Republican Leadership
I will suggest that there is an opportunity for the Republicans to score a huge political and policy win. It can be done in a bipartisan way and it can be done in a way that does not sell out the core principles that either Republicans or Democrats believe in.It would require a new effort—a clean sheet—this time initiated by the Republicans.The Republicans have won August. No doubt about it. But
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Splitting the Bills? The Democratic Leadership and the White House Staff Really Need a Vacation
The latest word is that the Democratic leadership and the White House see a “60% chance” they will split their health care bill into two parts—one a budget bill that would be eligible for the 51-vote Senate rule and the other the operational non-budget portions that will need 60 votes. This is all intended to get around the Byrd Rule—which allows the use of reconciliation
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The Obama Admistration Would Do Well to Read the Senate Rules and the Polls
The latest reports are that the White House is getting ready to ditch any thoughts about a bipartisan health care bill and just ram the Democratic bills through the Senate with bare majorities. Readers of this blog know that I don’t think it is ever possible to ram anything so big as health care through with slim Congressional majorities and even less public support. I
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Co-Ops Are the Single Dumbest Idea I Have Heard in the Health Care Debate in Twenty Years
This is a repost from June 23--sort of like regifting...I am sure you have heard the story about the committee that was charged with designing a horse but, because of the bureaucratic ways of the committee process, instead ended up creating a camel.We will not see a Medicare-like public health plan as part of any health care reform bill in 2009. I know proponents don’t want to hear that but it is
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The Other National Universal Systems of Care Are Not Our Problem
You can't have an American health care debate without plenty of trashing of single payer systems elsewhere.I am not a single-payer advocate. I believe it is simplistic to think that if we just had one and eliminated the duplicate expenses multiple payers bring with them everything would be OK.I think a single-payer solution is simplistic because it misses the different histories that have gone on
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Are Democrats Getting Ready to Ditch the Public Option? But They Would Still Be Challenged by the Trillion Dollar Price Tag
It looks to me like the popular objections to a health care bill being expressed by voters this month are concentrated in two primary areas:A concern about “government control of the health care system”—mostly around the public plan option.The trillion-dollar cost of a health care bill at a time deficits are swelling and worries about who will really end up paying for it.As a result of the first
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