On Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 8:23 AM, John Williams<jwilliams4...@gmail.com> wrote: > DeLong (the other one) on health care costs and health insurance reform. > > http://american.com/archive/2009/maybe-we-should-spend-more-on-healthcare > > | So what should be done about healthcare costs? Many things, including > | a phaseout of employment-based health insurance in favor of other > | policies; elimination of mandates that require insurance coverage > | of designated procedures; availability of programs that combine > | health savings accounts with catastrophe insurance; availability of > | policies across state lines; reform of the tort system; reform of cost > | accounting procedures that create dysfunctional incentives for industry > | participants; availability of high deductibles so that insurance can be > | insurance rather than socialized medicine; a second look at our policy > | of forcing the young to subsidize the geezers, who are after all the > | wealthiest segment of the population, and who can afford to spend more > | on healthcare because other demands on their income are less. > > | It is a long list. Take care of these reforms and total spending > | will take care of itself. Spending may become higher or lower—who > | knows?—but it will better represent a reasonable assessment of value > | for money. These reforms will also forestall the most worrisome aspect > | of the current “spend too much” panic: the urge to cut costs at the > | expense of the future.
The link was broken for me, but from what you quoted above it seems we'd all need 2 or three insurance policies, a medical account and state and federal income tax deductions. And since insurance companies are worried about making money for themselves, not the health of their customers, you can bet we'll probably need a lawyer to keep them honest. Then we'll need an accountant to help keep track of it all. Why would we do all that crap when we can jealously look at other countries and say "Damn, why don't we do something like that. It costs less and it works better"??? Doug _______________________________________________ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
