Comments: Health Insurance
Commie!
I've thought similar things about Hope in GA. Don't get me wrong, I think Hope is great, I know plenty of people who were really helped by it but a cynical take on the big picture would be to look at who's buying lottery tickets (the poor) and the fact that plenty of upper middle class and rich folks are simply pocketing the money (or buying their student's SUVs) they were perfectly prepaired to pay for college.
You know who has said that same thing as Kerry about government run catastrophic insurance...Milton freakin Friedman
Posted by Wes at January 22, 2004 03:35 AM
Great point about Friedman. A Democrat's got a great message if he says "I want to make it easier to get insurance, but instead of bribing the health care companies I want to challenge them to make it more affordable" for those who already have it and then using the government to help those who don't.
I have similar feelings about HOPE. I think at the very least Mark Taylor's idea about not cutting benefits (ie books and fees) should be modified to not cutting out fees and books for people who can't afford it but not writing a blank check to a bunch of rich kids whose charge books and fees on their credit cards, their parents pay it and then they just cash their HOPE book check and pay for whatever.
Posted by Chris at January 22, 2004 03:49 AM
Question! How many of the great mass of young people who are uninsured do not have insurance because paying ANY amount for health/dental/perscription insurance just isn't on the radar screen... they're not chronically ill and would rather "risk it" than pay any premium at all?
Posted by maureen at January 28, 2004 09:21 AM
Probably a good majority of the uninsured. All young people really need anyway is catastrophic insurance and for most of them, the bankruptcy laws of this country kind of function as a backup system to having insurance in the first place. In bankruptcy, if you've got nothing to lose - you've got nothing to lose.
Not being able to get a low interest credit card for 7 years is a lot better than dying of cancer. But this is the whole point of mandatory insurance. For a risk pool to work you've got to have the unhealthy as well as the healthy so everything balances out. Exactly why private corporations don't want to get involved in Medicare unless the gov't bribes or they can pick and choose who to take.
Posted by Chris at January 28, 2004 11:44 AM
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)