Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Why no one believes Obama

Straw man arguments major Obama FAIL. The Politico. I would say healthcare overrreach is the straw that broke the camel's back.

Why no one believes Obama. George Will.

But don't underestimate his leftist determination to shove this through. Harvard prof Regina Herzlinger, Washington Times on the risks:
In the shadows lurks another potential doorway for federal takeover of your health care. Disingenuously labeled as an "exchange" -- countless people wonder what the heck it represents -- it is Uncle Sam's Monopoly Health Insurance Supermarket: the only market open for those who want federal subsidies for health insurance.[snip]

Contrast this with the vibrancy of other retail markets -- 42,000 stock-keeping units in the average supermarket,170,000 book titles published annually, and 211 models of automobiles. Innovative insurance products do exist, but not in the United States. South Africans, for example, could long purchase a demonstrably cost-effective plan that pays people who get healthier. The incentives lowered the costs of endocrine diseases by 20 percent, among other laudable achievements, but this product has barely dented the United States.

The competition created by entrepreneurs could control costs better than monopolies: Switzerland's 84 private health insurers spend a lower percentage on average general and administrative costs than Medicare. (The many Swiss insurers also show that a monopoly market is not the only way to provide the cross subsidization that enables the purchase of health insurance for the sick. Instead, the Swiss insurers have formed a reinsurance pool for coverage of the sick, in which they all participate.)

But a government-controlled monopoly insurance market is an unlikely host for competitors and their innovations.
No, no, no. Start over, go simple. How about start by allowing insurance companies to compete across state lines?

Some of us ask why not?

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