I just got this e-mail from the President. In it, he accuses me of being part of an “avalanche” of misinformation and scare tactics. Funny, sounds a little like his health care promises. In any case, here are the 8 things he promises to deliver, Santa Claus should be so kind.
Let’s take them in turn:
1. No discrimination for pre-existing conditions
2. No exorbitant out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles or co-pays
3. No cost-sharing for preventive care
4. No dropping of coverage if you become seriously ill
5. No gender discrimination
6. No annual or lifetime caps on coverage
7. Extended coverage for young adults
8. Guaranteed insurance renewal so long as premiums are paid
We know why such a pronouncement was made. Not many voters can look behind the immediate consequences of the offering of such gifts. They like guarantees. They like peace of mind. They like thinking they don’t have to pay to get more. And when someone even scratches the surface to reveal that there are unintended consequences of these policies, they are accused of being misleading and partisan. If such is the case, then I am as misleading and partisan as they come.
Update: more from Arnold Kling:
In contrast, there is a lot of room to move health care in the other direction–toward free markets. The only real health care reformers are those of us on the libertarian fringe. The two major parties are just posturing. That’s why I haven’t written much about the day-to-day debate on “reform.” It is not clear to me that defeating the Democrats’ legislation is something I should root for. We’re still nowhere near considering real reform.
Slam-dunk post!!! I got the same email today. Truly an amazing bit of political cr@p. 😉
So, your question is “why is health care special?” In other words, why don’t we treat health care like, say ordering a meal in a restaurant.
Well, part of the answer is called rescission. This is where you pay your premiums, get sick, and then get dropped for an undiagnosed or unknown pre-existing condition. It’s the equivalent of walking into a restaurant, ordering and paying for a meal, getting the soup, but then not getting the main course. And not getting a refund! Sorry you’re still sick hungry – not our fault.
The more fundamental answer is that a lot of our health is out of our control. There is no way to prevent gallstones. I had melanoma a few years ago. Maybe if I hadn’t spent my youth standing on the bridge of a frigate in Florida – or maybe not. My father and his brother both had prostate cancer in their mid-50s, vastly increasing my risk. Other than picking different parents, what am I supposed to do about that?
Attempting to financially encourage people to be healthy is a great idea. Unfortunately, there are real limits to how much control we have over our health. Penalizing people for matters over which they have no control is fundamentally un-American. Except that’s exactly what our current health care system does.
WellPoint’s Blue Cross of California subsidiary and two other insurers saved more than $300 million in medical claims by canceling more than 20,000 sick policyholders over a five-year period. More results like this can be found by Googling “recission.”
And once again, I would like to know how “American” it is for people to point a gun at me and demand that I become responsible for taking care of their medical expenses Well, first off, we already do that – it’s called “Medicare,” and “the VA” and “Medicaid.” Second, this includes your care, unforeseen and otherwise. Third, since we’re not in the habit of letting people die in the street, you’re already paying for other people’s care. Who do you think pays for the uninsured folks in the emergency room? Or when they get admitted for serious conditions? Or the public hospitals, like Cook County General here in Chicago?
“My father and his brother both had prostate cancer in their mid-50s, vastly increasing my risk. Other than picking different parents, what am I supposed to do about that?
“…Penalizing people for matters over which they have no control is fundamentally un-American.”
If you get prostate cancer, it may not be your fault, but how the hell is it MY fault??? It is not “penalizing” someone to *not* give them something that is *not* theirs.
I may have been born with a high metabolism and have to eat more food than the average person, but that would not give me a claim of being “penalized” because my food bill is higher.
You are responsible for taking care of you. Part of that is buying (or growing) food you need. Part of that is paying rent or a mortgage so you have a place to live. Part of that is paying for your own health care, or otherwise providing for such (e.g. insurance). Demanding that other people provide you with these things (or cry that you are being “penalized” when they do not) is wrong. It’s nonsense.
First, I am not demanding that other people provide me something. I am perfectly willing to pay my share, and considering I am in a high income bracket, I will be paying.
Second, you are now making a fundamentally moral argument. It’s the essential argument of libertarianism, which is “let them die” if they (whoever “they” are) can’t fend for themselves.
It’s certainly your right to make that argument, and I won’t attempt to dissuade you. But please don’t pretend it’s an economic argument, or an argument based on logic.
Ask yourself why the super market doesn’t sell you watered down milk? Seriously? Ever hear of Upton Sinclair? Adulterated food was a major issue until the establishment of the FDA. What prevents rescission in virtually any other area of your life? Usually laws and regulations.
My (potential) illness is not your fault. It may not be my fault. Much like, say, having your house wiped out by a tornado, bad things may happen that are nobody’s fault. Except in the tornado case, not only do homeowners buy insurance, we (society) also send in the National Guard (at *your* expense) and provide other disaster aid.
Regarding the ad hominem attack, I am carrying libertarian thought to the logical extreme. If I have an obligation to feed myself, then food stamps are wrong. At some point, society steps in and decides that we don’t want to let people suffer, even due to their own fault. The whole point of civilization is to live in conditions that are better then that of raw nature.
The email from Obama (Rahm Emmanuel?) evokes Goebles (sp? never bothered to learn spelling his name) communicating to his fellow Nazis, repeating lies often, electronically this time.
One of their errors was to believe that HillaryCare died because of bad political tactics, thus the race to pass it quickly. Arlen Specter said this today before an angry crowd in Philadelphia, with Kathleen Sebelius present to receive the hurled tomatoes. “We’ve worked so hard on this bill,” they both said, but added that “the final bill has not yet been written.” Arlen assured the crowd that each segment was read by his staff.
If I were Pat Toomey, I would summarize the session as, “Rahm tees up Specter for a nice drive on the first hole.”
“Much like, say, having your house wiped out by a tornado, bad things may happen that are nobody’s fault. Except in the tornado case, not only do homeowners buy insurance, we (society) also send in the National Guard (at *your* expense) and provide other disaster aid.”
Very true, and we already HAVE that in terms of health care. In an emergency, any person can go to an emergency room and by law they will receive care regardless of their ability to pay for it.
To follow your comparison, Obamacare is like saying that the government should pay for someone to come over to clean my gutters and mow my lawn. Caring for my house and yard is *society’s* responsibility. We’re not talking emergency care here; and thus yours is a false comparison.
Very nice post, I wish it could be read aloud on a news outlet.
Commenter Chris made a good point about rescission being an issue, which he is right to a certain extent, I know because this actually happened to my aunt. However, what Chris is really pointing at is the need for real actual reform of the healthcare companies towards the free market without government intervention. Healthcare contracts need to be more clear cut and understandable by non-lawyers (i.e. you shouldn’t have to hire a lawyer just to find out what’s in your coverage) and also it should be easier to bring claims to court when situations like rescission arise.
Putting together a couple of aspects, like Obamacare, ACORN, the BP Spill and Obama’s lack of economic action, there’s mounting evidence that he’s employing the Cloward-Piven Strategy, developed by two professors at Columbia who taught while Obama was attending school there. The plan is to crush the markets by creating and/or failing to properly react to disasters, over-spending and perpetually bad economic decisions until much of it becomes nonfunctional and the government can step in and take over.