Saturday, August 29, 2009

Obamacare 2.0 or Bait and Switch

Charles Krauthammer delivers a "Plan B" for Obamacare. As I have said before, no reasonable person will deny that we need some changes, but reasonable people can and do disagree on complete overhaul, deficit spending, and putting government in control of healthcare matters. Here's one such proposal:

"...Obamacare 2.0 -- promulgating draconian health-insurance regulation that prohibits (a) denying coverage for preexisting conditions, (b) dropping coverage if the client gets sick and (c) capping insurance company reimbursement.
What's not to like? If you have insurance, you'll never lose it. Nor will your children ever be denied coverage for preexisting conditions.


The regulated insurance companies will get two things in return. Government will impose an individual mandate that will force the purchase of health insurance on the millions of healthy young people who today forgo it. And government will subsidize all the others who are too poor to buy health insurance. The result? Two enormous new revenue streams created by government for the insurance companies.

Its not perfect but its another idea/option, something congress seems to be woefully short of these days.

but then Krauthammer then lets the other leather boot drop as it were:

"...Isn't there a catch? Of course, there is. Government-subsidized universal and virtually unlimited coverage will vastly compound already out-of-control government spending on health care. The financial and budgetary consequences will be catastrophic. And the only solution will be rationing. That's when the liberals will give the FCCCER regulatory power and give you end-of-life counseling. " (more here)

4 comments:

Teresa said...

I like Krauthammer's Obamacare 2.0. It brings common sense to the table, which there doesn't seem to be much of in politics nowadays. This wouldn't let the insurance companies take advantage of the sick by dropping coverage.

eutychus said...

thanks Teresa. I'm inclined to think there are many such options out there even if we lack a congress with the imagination to find them. And I kind of like this one. Though I am hesitant buy into any program that has to force anyone to buy something they don't want and really have nary a shred of trust left for this administration.

eulogos said...

I think I like this also.

After all, who protests about having to buy automobile insurance?
It's true, if you don't want to buy it, you don't have to drive, whereas there is no such alternative for buying health insurance.

There should be quite low rates for the young. Competition for their business could bring the rates down.

This program would also get rid of some of the stuff insurers do to deny claims like pretend they don't know your kids are in college, or pretend you haven't told them 5 times already that no, your husband hasn't been covered by another policy for over 5 years now. Well, maybe it wouldn't get rid of that last one.

I really don't like health insurance companies. But I have no illusion that the government would be better.
Susan Peterson

eutychus said...

Thanks Susan for that input. Some very good points there. And a plan that doesn't require a thousand pages, what a concept.:-)
Thanks for stopping by.