Quote of the Day
The very spring and root of honesty and virtue lie in good education.
Plutarch
The Health Care Debate Shifts to the Courtroom...
Insurance Mandate Ruled Unconstitutional: Thumbs UP!
Well, the way the Democrats are playing today's long-expected decision from Federal District Judge Henry Hudson, that the individual mandate for health care insurance is unconstitutional, is that the score is 2 liberal judges to 1 conservative judge. I have not read the decisions of the 2 liberal judges, but from a common sense perspective, I like Hudson's decision. What confuses me is why more people don't see the same obvious points I do.
Why have progressives gone along with mandates? (Well, Obama opposed insurance mandates during the 2008 primaries--a point I've repeatedly raised in past posts.) Simple: to liberals, preexisting conditions must be waived for insurance; at the same time, insurance to the sick (i.e., with preexisting conditions) must be affordable. In the eyes of myself and most conservatives and economists, "affordable" insurance is not really insurance at all: someone is paying less than the costs of his benefits and must be subsidized. The fewer relatively healthy people participate in the market, the higher the individual share--but this is a vicious circle as healthier or budget-constrained people decide to self-insure and cut out the middleman. So the idea of a mandate is to force everyone to insure or pay a penalty in order to keep rates more affordable for other people. But the only way they can really subsidize is if their premiums exceed their costs. (And for most people or businesses, if given the choice between health care premiums or say a 7% penalty, taking the penalty is a no-brainer. Question: what do you think happens if the 7% penalty/tax doesn't subsidize enough?)
Many healthier people need catastrophic coverage, just like auto drivers need to cover bodily injury and property damage. But things like an occasional doctor's visit can easily be handled a la carte, without having to pay 10 to 30% in insurance middleman costs. There are various ways to handle this, e.g., a sales tax on health services (including insurance), the revenue of which would then be used to subsidize coverage on a means basis. There are also various mechanisms to help control for moral hazard: for example, you would price insurance higher for higher-cost people (including those whom wait until they are sick, so they can socialize their own expenses) and/or fortify or build upon existing high risk pools.
What Democrats in particular refuse to acknowledge is the importance of vesting patients into health care cost controls. Also when they constantly raise the income eligibility for programs (e.g., Medicaid), they vastly increase the government's cost exposure.
There are lots of things prudent people should purchase, e.g., life insurance, disability insurance, retirement funds, etc. But when it comes to health, I think the federal government should subsidize (and restrict its involvement) the high-cost individuals (and insurers would be less likely to drop high-cost individuals if the government entered into some cost-plus relationship at a certain level).
Unconstitutional? Of course. If you require health care, then you could also apply the same paternalistic progressive principles to almost any insurance under the sun. Congress should never have opened Pandora's box.
Obama-GOP Tax Cut Compromise Passes First Hurdle: Thumbs UP!
Only 15 senators voted against cloture, suggesting easy Senate passage. (Typically, but not always, a vote for cloture is a reliable indicator of bill support.) The wild card is what the House Democrats will do with dozens of progressive lawmakers furious at Obama's giving up the class warfare card, in particular, the estate tax which amounts to a negligible amount of federal revenue. (Conservatives, including myself, have an issue with progressives double-dipping the same stream of income.)
Political Humor
"Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner had to go to the hospital today because of a kidney stone. On the bright side, the stone was the first thing in months passed by a member of the Obama administration." - Jimmy Fallon
[Before enabling the stone to pass, doctors negotiated tough dietary concessions from Geithner. Plus lifetime exemptions from IRS audits.]
"President Obama lit the national Christmas tree, a 40-foot Colorado Spruce. Republicans don’t believe it’s really from Colorado, and they want to see a birth certificate." - Jay Leno
[It's a genuine 100% recycled Colorado Spruce artificial holiday tree, complete with Chinese-produced solar-powered holiday lights and Red Star on top. Obama is expected to make his first stimulus payment to the Chinese next month (in addition to the regular interest payments for nearly $1T in T-bill debt).]
Musical Interlude: Holiday Tunes
The Carpenters, "Merry Christmas, Darling"
