Robert J. Samuelson - Samuelson on the fake debate on the public health plan -... - The Diigo Meta page

• 03 Nov 09
  

  Eric Hanneken

  Robert Samuelson might also have mentioned that Medicare is insolvent in the face of retiring Baby Boomers.

  health insurance public option economics politics Robert Samuelson

  • The public plan's low costs would be artificial. Its main advantage would be the congressionally mandated requirement that hospitals and doctors be reimbursed at rates at or near Medicare's.
  • But health costs wouldn't subside; hospitals and doctors would offset the public plan's artificially low reimbursements by raising fees to private insurers, as already occurs with Medicare.
  • 2 more annotations...
  • • The promise of the public plan is a mirage. Its political brilliance is to use free-market rhetoric (more "choice" and "competition") to expand government power.

    • Many would say: Whoopee! Get rid of the sinister insurers. Bring on a single-payer system. But if that's the agenda, why not debate it directly? It's not insurers that cause high health costs; they're simply the middlemen. It's the fragmented delivery system and open-ended reimbursement. Would strict regulation of doctors, hospitals and patients under a single-payer system provide control? Or would genuine competition among health plans over price and quality work better?
      

      
      

      
      That's the debate we need, but in truth, doctors, hospitals and patients don't want to be limited, whether by government or markets. Congress reflects public opinion. Fearing a real debate, we fake it.
      

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