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Post by AztecWilliam on Aug 9, 2009 14:05:05 GMT -8
Politicians frequently make self-serving statements that may (perhaps) help them but just as frequently do damage to important national debate of critical public policy issues. One of the regrettable tactics used by Democrats in their campaign to neutralize Republican opposition to Obamacare is the claim that those in opposition have no ideas of their own. False! And here is a piece that suggests two very sensible reforms that could help improve health care significantly. Do you think Barack will "reach out" to the GOP on these ideas? One can only hope. www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/08/07/health_care_reform_a_better_plan_97804.html AzWm |
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Post by davdesid on Aug 9, 2009 14:20:39 GMT -8
William, William, William... ...tsk... Don't you realize Krauthammer is a right-wing nut? Just consider his name: KRAUT-hammer. If that doesn't convince you, consider the fact that he is confined to a wheel-chair! The parallels are chilling:   |
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Post by Bob Forsythe on Aug 9, 2009 16:58:31 GMT -8
Politicians frequently make self-serving statements that may (perhaps) help them but just as frequently do damage to important national debate of critical public policy issues. One of the regrettable tactics used by Democrats in their campaign to neutralize Republican opposition to Obamacare is the claim that those in opposition have no ideas of their own. False! And here is a piece that suggests two very sensible reforms that could help improve health care significantly. Do you think Barack will "reach out" to the GOP on these ideas? One can only hope. www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/08/07/health_care_reform_a_better_plan_97804.html AzWm Well, as ideas go, those are pretty pedestrian. However speaking of Reagan, he wrote: With the resulting savings, they lowered tax rates across the board. Those reductions, combined with the elimination of the enormous inefficiencies and perverse incentives that go into tax sheltering, helped propel a 20-year economic boom.Apparently Krauthammer is well off enough that he didn't suffer any problems during the recession in the late '80s and early '90s (and even longer here and some other states). Taxing health care benefits is a stupid idea. I don't care for the Democrats advocating it or the Republicans advocating it. Most employees pay a fair amount of their employee health care costs and removing that so they'd have to pay the entire amount and then, I assume, get a tax refund at the end of the year wouldn't work for lower level employees. And since they'd be doing it as individuals, they would have no negotiating power. Tort reform is always the whine, but I still maintain that the premiums for doctors and hospitals are far too high and the insurance companies are making a fortune off of them. Now, what I can see is what Kaiser does, which is require arbitration before any litigation. It wouldn't be all that difficult to set up arbitration boards in each state. That would put the counsels for the plaintiff at a distinct disadvantage if they got something in the middle and turned it down because they'd have to argue why the arbitration board got it wrong. =Bob |
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Post by AlwaysAnAztec on Aug 10, 2009 8:39:59 GMT -8
One can see who butters his bread. The medical insurance industry. He advocates socializing, his word not mine, one section of our legal system but leaving everyone dependent on the good will of the medical insurance industry.
The theory is that taxing employer provided insurance will provide incentive for the employer to stop providing that benefit and increase the employee's wage accordingly. Right. And I've got a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn.
Now I actually have no problem with his 'socialized' approach to malpractice. It gets the greedy lawyers out out equation. Now lets implement a 'socialized' approach to the medical insurance industry. It gets the greedy insurance companies out of the equation too.
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