FYI

[brynndragon]

Today at 3PM on WBUR (90.9 FM and online at WBUR.org) fucking Romney and members of the state legislature will be discussing the new health care plan with the public. I'll be listening, because I want to know if my (and some friend's) impression that this is taking a nice notion[1] and turning it into a nightmare for people who are eking out a living or are (or become) GoLs[2].

[1] No matter how feasible you think it is (I'm up in the air about it myself), quality health care for everyone (aka universal health care) is a fabulous idea.

[2] Gentlepeople of Leisure, also known as the unemployed

Comments

[tober.livejournal.com]

I would actually disagree with the statement that "No matter how feasible you think it is, quality health care for everyone is a fabulous idea." I could launch into a lengthy tirade[1] on this, but instead I'll just claim that this statement is pretty platitudinous and about as meaningful as any of the following statements:
Quality food for everyone is a fabulous idea.
Quality housing for everyone is a fabulous idea.
Quality sex for everyone is a fabulous idea.
Quality annual vacation to exotic locales with balmy beaches and fruity alcoholic beverages with tiny umbrellas in them for everyone is a fabulous idea.

[1] Tiny version of tirade: Regulation that distances individuals from the true cost of things that benefit them is bad. I am convinced that much of what is wrong with health care as it stands now is not that too few people are insured, but that too many people are insured - or, in other words, a much fairer (to all parties except insurance companies) market would exist with respect to health care if the vast majority of consumers of health care services paid out of their own individual pockets.

Why you want to insure everyone, according to my profs

[(Anonymous)]

According to my professors:

See, making people pay out of pocket for healthcare makes them reluctant to go to the doctor. So they won't pay to see the dentist for their infected tooth but run to the ER when their mouth is a festering pile of pus. Costs more to treat them, so it's economically inefficient in the long-run: pennywise and pound-foolish.
And the unfortunate individual now has a mouth that doesn't chew anymore.
What we should do that we don't do in healthcare is preventive medicine. So we get everyone insurance so they can see the doctor regularly, and pay for everyone's hypertension meds so they don't come in for the kidney failure from untreated hypertension.
That's the official med-school argument, anyway.

Extremely Corrupt Henchman Egregiously, Needlessly Alienating Good Users :-)