Buzz's Journal: Health Care Reform is DOA
Health Care Reform is DOA
Because I'm not a professional pundit, I can declare with impunity that health care reform in the US is dead. Actually, real reform was dead quite a while back and what eventually emerged from the House and Senate was a form of health insurance reform, and now, even limited changes in an unsustainable health delivery system are moribund. I must say that I'm surprised because I thought that, after the Senate managed to pass a bill the day before Christmas, some version of both it and the House bill would become law. I don't like bill and I favor an entirely different approach which returns health costs to the consumer and the market, but I thought that what was passed was better than the zero that we're going to end up with.
While there are many reasons for this failure of reform, the one that stands out is that Americans feel no collective responsibility for those citizens who are suffering due to their inability to receive health care, no responsibility that is that will cost the average Joe any money, and so, over the Christmas season, public support for health insurance reform, which was never very solid, evaporated as it became clear that insurance reform had costs and was not a free lunch. The Republicans, the party of nope, whose concern for human life ends at birth, have only one goal, which is to bring down the Obama administration, and they have no alternative solutions to propose. Has anyone ever heard of a Republican health care reform plan?
What now? The vast majority of Americans will continue to be covered by employer-provided health insurance, the increasing costs of which will be paid for out of foregone wage and salary increases and increased out-of-pocket costs. Medicare will take care of the oldsters and Medicaid will provide some relief to the poor, all at escalating costs to taxpayers.
The figure to watch is how much of GDP goes for health care. At present, it is 16.2%. Over the years, this percentage will increase so that American competitiveness will be diminished. What this boils down to is not a cataclysmic event. Rather, look forward to a gradual decrease in the American standard of living as our competitors surge ahead with their health care costs a much smaller percent of GDP than ours.
Money spent on health care cannot be spent on creating jobs, education, new industries, etc. You want a job with health insurance? Who's crazy enough to hire you when your coverage will cost the employer in excess of $25,000 per year? Sorry, you temps and part-timers, you're on your own. The unemployed will remain unemployed or forced into low paying service jobs. For the lucky ones who have good jobs with health insurance: hold on to your seats.
Because I'm not a professional pundit, I can declare with impunity that health care reform in the US is dead. Actually, real reform was dead quite a while back and what eventually emerged from the House and Senate was a form of health insurance reform, and now, even limited changes in an unsustainable health delivery system are moribund. I must say that I'm surprised because I thought that, after the Senate managed to pass a bill the day before Christmas, some version of both it and the House bill would become law. I don't like bill and I favor an entirely different approach which returns health costs to the consumer and the market, but I thought that what was passed was better than the zero that we're going to end up with.
While there are many reasons for this failure of reform, the one that stands out is that Americans feel no collective responsibility for those citizens who are suffering due to their inability to receive health care, no responsibility that is that will cost the average Joe any money, and so, over the Christmas season, public support for health insurance reform, which was never very solid, evaporated as it became clear that insurance reform had costs and was not a free lunch. The Republicans, the party of nope, whose concern for human life ends at birth, have only one goal, which is to bring down the Obama administration, and they have no alternative solutions to propose. Has anyone ever heard of a Republican health care reform plan?
What now? The vast majority of Americans will continue to be covered by employer-provided health insurance, the increasing costs of which will be paid for out of foregone wage and salary increases and increased out-of-pocket costs. Medicare will take care of the oldsters and Medicaid will provide some relief to the poor, all at escalating costs to taxpayers.
The figure to watch is how much of GDP goes for health care. At present, it is 16.2%. Over the years, this percentage will increase so that American competitiveness will be diminished. What this boils down to is not a cataclysmic event. Rather, look forward to a gradual decrease in the American standard of living as our competitors surge ahead with their health care costs a much smaller percent of GDP than ours.
Money spent on health care cannot be spent on creating jobs, education, new industries, etc. You want a job with health insurance? Who's crazy enough to hire you when your coverage will cost the employer in excess of $25,000 per year? Sorry, you temps and part-timers, you're on your own. The unemployed will remain unemployed or forced into low paying service jobs. For the lucky ones who have good jobs with health insurance: hold on to your seats.
posted by Buzz at 6:41 PM
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