Hell must be getting ready to freeze over
NPR--NPR!--discovers that markets aren't the cause of the problems in our health-care system and that the currently proposed liegislation won't fix them. Stephen Spruill at National Review Online cracks:
Democrats have accused conservatives of spreading fear and misinformation about their health-care legislation. They might want to look into this new and most insidious propaganda arm of the conservative movement: NPR.
Not listening to NPR works for me. I have satellite radio and I'd recommend that, except it's gone downhill since Sirius took over.
Posted by: whosonfirst | November 23, 2009 at 07:18 AM
Maybe they should have looked at Texas.
Texas passed legislation that capped malpractice awards and otherwise made it very difficult to sue doctors.
It worked very well and the cost of malpractice insurance fell sharply.
But interestingly, there is absolutely no evidence that it made any difference in the way Texas doctors practiced medicine
or that they reduced the practice of defensive medicine.
Posted by: spencer | November 23, 2009 at 11:59 AM
Shouldn't the Democrats be hiring the CRU global climate change people to cover this up?
Posted by: JorgXMcKie | November 23, 2009 at 01:46 PM
Here's a perfectly serious question: What would happen if the market for health care and health insurance was completely deregulated? No tax break for buying health insurance through an employer, no Medicare or Medicaid, no restrictions on hospital's and doctor's abilities to set up shop where they choose, no restrictions on the kinds of policies insurance companies can offer, or on where they can offer them, etc. Seriously, would something really bad happen?
If you're worried about the poor not having access to health care it should be easy to make sure some money gets passed to them without hugely distorting the market for everyone else. Shouldn't it?
Posted by: Robert Johnson | November 23, 2009 at 11:53 PM
Robert, you know what would happen. Medical costs would fall dramatically, but the liberals would be all up in arms because some illegal immigrant, old cat lady, or welfare kid was uninsured.
Posted by: kyle8 | November 24, 2009 at 09:45 AM
Following on from the 'hell freezing over' theme--the folks at the NYT seem to be concerned with the Mt Everest of debt we have incurred: Wave of Debt Payments Facing US Government...
http://www.cnbc.com/id/34104722
Posted by: Chris C | November 24, 2009 at 05:28 PM