On Mon, Nov 9, 2009 at 8:15 AM, Louis Proyect <[email protected]> wrote: > But instead of working toward the elimination of for-profit insurance, H.R. > 3962 would put the government in the role of accelerating the privatization > of health care. In H.R. 3962, the government is requiring at least 21 > million Americans to buy private health insurance from the very industry > that causes costs to be so high, which will result in at least $70 billion > in new annual revenue, much of which is coming from taxpayers. This > inevitably will lead to even more costs, more subsidies, and higher profits > for insurance companies - a bailout under a blue cross.
Isn't this unduly pessimistic? There are many reasons to be more positive about this. - Health-care reform of any kind - even a weak one - is an important political achievement. It shows this is not a "third rail" issue that cannot be touched. Expect this to be merely Round 1 of an ongoing reform process. - In the same spirit as above, even a watered-down "public option" is important. It is a Trojan horse for a more substantial program in future. More importantly, once people get used to the idea of a "public option", the terms of the discourse is altered and is no longer set by the insurance industry. - The restrictions being imposed on the insurance industry e.g. not discriminating against "pre-existing conditions" are not trivial. Indeed these restrictions take away probably the most destructive and profitable practices for the industry. - The principle of universal health care for everyone is an important one and once it is accepted, it'd be impossible to take it away without popular protest. -raghu. -- "Really ?? What a coincidence, I'm shallow too!!" _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
