Bizarro Health Care ‘Reform’: Expect Less, Pay More
by Brian Schwartz | 1:30 am, November 6, 2009
Pajamas Media was kind enough to publish my article about the Democrats’ “Bizarro” health care reform. Here’s the first few paragraphs:
Expect less, pay more. It’s not the slogan for some “Bizarro World” Target store in a comic book; it’s an accurate slogan for congressional Democrats’ health care “reform” proposals. They include a new government-run insurance plan, mandatory insurance, new political controls on insurance, and new taxes.
Government-run health plan
You should expect less choice with a new government-run health plan, known as the “public option.” As economics professor Scott Harrington has noted, the public option would be the only option. It would unfairly compete with non-government insurers, which must comply with burdensome political controls that increase premiums. Millions of people would be herded to the government plan who did not choose it as an “option.”
It’s fitting that some House Democrats want to call the government program “Medicare Part E,” where “E” is for “everyone.” Before Medicare, retirees bought voluntary insurance in increasing numbers. Medicare killed this trend and soon monopolized the market.
Read the entire article: Bizarro Health Care ‘Reform’: Expect Less, Pay More.
Thanks to Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute for inspiring the theme for this article. In his interview for the Fall 2009 issue of Cato’s Letter, he said:
In the end, the American people need to understand that under the reform plans currently making their way through Congress, they will pay more, both in terms of higher taxes and in high premiums, and receive poorer quality health in return.
I should also thank Cato for mailing it to me. Anyone (in the U.S., I assume) can receive Cato’s Letter quarterly for free.
