Saving RomneyCare, an annual political circus
Summary: Health care reform requires ongoing government involvement, political involvement that risks making all health questions into political footballs.
In a preview of a fight you can expect every year if health reform passes, Massachusetts on Thursday passed a compromise aimed at controlling health care costs.
Among the key provisions are annual public hearings on costs, incentives for doctors to choose primary care, and a requirement for electronic records by 2015.
Key questions on cost control were punted to a commission.
What drew the most public attention, however, was a limit on gifts to doctors, which biotech firms say will damage the state's medical industry. Gifts over $50 will now become public record.
The original Massachusetts plan, with its requirement for everyone to have health insurance, was dubbed RomneyCare after then-Governor Mitt Romney. Conservatives are now hanging it around his neck as he tries to become John McCain's nominee for Vice President.
The gifts provision won't make a big difference on costs, but the fact that this largely-symbolic act became the whole focus of debate is telling.
Health care reform requires ongoing government involvement, political involvement that risks making all health questions into political footballs.
The enemy here isn't waste so much as irrelevance and grandstanding on all sides. No one, in any democracy, has yet come up with a cure for that.
(The illustration, from the Torontoist, is an attack on a local politician there for political grandstanding. My guess is the feeling behind the tape is universal.)
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Talkback
Actually we did come up with a solution
there's no point in bribing them.
The real problem here is the American people who are like you:
thinking that the State actually SHOULD be involved in providing
health care. Too many Americans think that and so we get the
mess we have.
When you complain about politics in health care, look in the
mirror. You and those like you are the reason it exists.
Ummm hmmm...
Now look at us. We still haven't learned from Bush's free market health care experimentation. I'm paying something like 1000% more for health care now. And I am NOT going to shop for the cheapest doctor to perform a c-section on my wife. s if its possible to do so anyway. Everytime I read one of these insurance brochures talking about the beneficial freedom to shop around I almost put myself in the hospital for hyper-tension.
Government can take it over COMPLETELY if you ask me. Why do I say that? Because theres really only one difference between the two but I'll start with the similarities. The idea of insurance is socialistic itself so theres no point in complaining about socialism or not controlling your own money. Either way you are paying for the guy next door except with the private company you're losing something like 30% off the top for no reason whatsoever. Both systems would gamble on having more contribution than need. They would both be headed up by snobs that really don't care about you. But here is the difference. You CAN hold the government snob's future in your hand. You have no bearing on the other one.
No people can talk this "we don't really control the government" crap if they want. Thats just and excuse to sit on your a$$. I have never seen an official magically take an elected office without having been voted in. One of the funniest things in this country to me is how we complain about the government as if we are the ones that went to the polls and put those people in office. This collective ignorance we have will doom us all.
Thanks for writing
Big business vs. big government
Without government, those businesses do harm unchecked. That's what Republicans saw in the 1890s. That's what Democrats see today.
RE: Saving RomneyCare, an annual political circus
Saving RomneyCare, an annual political circus
They love commissions, give them the problem, throw lots of $ at them, then still have no answer except to raise taxes, excuse me fees.
What did folks do before there were these huge insurance companies? Give free market a chance, what they could do a worse job than the gov't? Please give me a break.
Good job on bringing this issue up Dana, just be sure there is a bit of history checking done.