Insight, analysis & opinion from Joe Paduda
If you haven’t been reading Health Wonk Review of late, the latest edition shows what you’re missing. Bob Laszewski’s selections show just how far the health policy blog world has progressed in the last 18 months.
On a family vacation in Colorado for the week, and assiduously avoiding anything remotely resembling work. See you next week.
What’s taken me two weeks to address in words is covered by Tom Tomorrow in a few panels.
Here’s his take…
Original source – Salon
Tom Tomorrow’s This Modern World
The last argument against universal coverage is that it is socialist, and therefore bad.
Whenever critics start throwing labels around, its obvious their position is not based on facts, data, and logic. And/or they are just lazy, as not much is simpler than saying “that’s bad because it is socialist/fascist/communist/libertarian”.
(have you noticed that as we get to the bottom of the list the I-Hate-Universal-Coverage crowd’s arguments get thin to the point of invisibility?)
Continue reading Universal coverage is bad – Part Nine, Socialism
Universal coverage is not needed because its just a replacement for a failed Medicaid/Medicare system that should be covering those folks without employer-based insurance. Once we fix the ‘M’ programs we’ll be fine.
That’s another argument against UC, and the one we’ll tackle today.
(Again, we will narrowly construe this argument; corollaries and complementary/supplemental positions have been addressed in detail previously.)
Richard Eskow at the Sentinel Effect must’ov been up most of the night writing the latest Carnival of Risk. Enjoy the fruits of his labors!
This morning we address the “if they have insurance, they’ll use it, which will drive up costs…and inevitably lead to rationing” reason to not favor universal coverage.
I used to agree with the first part of the statement; the ‘moral hazard’ argument. Now, after reading comments on this blog and others,and doing more research, I don’t agree with it at all.
“Rationing” is one of those scare words designed to make people think they’ll die before getting an MRI to diagnose cancer. But first things first.
New York’s new fee schedule for drugs dispensed to workers comp claimants is among the lowest in the nation.
How low?
The workers comp market is still soft, with rates continuing to decline. However, the rate of decline has leveled off somewhat, with the latest stats indicating a decrease of less than 2% in the second quarter.
While some think the tapering off is due to the effect of the California and Florida reforms tapering off, I’m not so sure.
Continue reading Will the soft market in workers comp persist?
Perhaps the most puzzling condemnation of universal coverage is the contention that “A mandate is not necessary as the free market will solve the problem”.
Proponents of the free market argue that the problem is today’s market is not “free”, but rather over-regulated. And once we completely de-regulate the insurance market, the Invisible Hand will produce products and services that will provide coverage for a lot more folks.
