health care optimism?
Mood: hopeful
Posted on 2009-11-24 17:17:00
Tags: politics links
Words: 84

Based on the fact that the Senate health care bill barely got to the floor, and the fact that it sounds like 4 Senators (Landrieu, Lieberman, Lincoln, Nelson), were going to vote against it if it contained a public option, I was pessimistic!

But now after reading this article, I'm more optimistic that even if the bill that passes doesn't have a public option, it could still make a difference in health care costs. Also, that article is required reading in the White House!

3 comments

Comment from abstractseaweed:
2009-11-24T18:28:40+00:00
But I want freedom, dangit! Whether it's effective at reducing costs isn't the issue. If my only option is to pay less, and I have no choice, then that's un-American!

Comment from djedi:
2009-11-25T10:54:17+00:00
I agree. =) Private markets don't perform well in something like this...high barrier to entry, essential service, difficult to compare services.

Comment from anonymous:
2009-11-25T13:31:14+00:00
Indeed. When someone is in the middle of a medical emergency they can't afford time to shop around for the lowest-cost provider, so the consumer-driven approach to cost containment doesn't work so well. With layers between the consumer and provider -- the insurance company and the employer -- the consumer really doesn't have much leverage to choose a different insurer or to shop around for different providers based on cost. Then there's the fact that medicine is complicated, and most consumers doesn't have the advanced educational background to understand all the biology and physiology without guidance from the providers. All of those factors make a free-market model not so effective in the area of healthcare.

--Abstractseaweed

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