November 12, 2006
Healthcare
Since the Democrats triumphed in the midterm elections, and I still have a low grade, unexplained fever, after having suffered through strep throat and a ten day course of antibiotics (we're now working on the theory of mold allergy --exacerbated by dead leaves, moist autumn, no frost, old house, basement office and mushroom consumption), my thoughts, quite naturally, have turned to healthcare. Let's face it, like global warming, and the war in Iraq, the subject needs immediate attention.
On Thursday I went to the walk-in clinic (NOT the emergency room, mind you) of a local teaching hospital for another strep test. I don't have a primary care doctor because I'm a senseless and foolhardy person. I was told that the waiting room at the walk-in was filled with much more responsible citizens, ALL of whom had primary care doctors. They were sick, and could not wait three weeks to be seen, thus providing a perfect segue to our big Sunday read.
Paul Krugman and Robin Wells have written a most sensible piece in the New York Review of Books entitled"The Health Care Crisis And What to Do About It". which you are instructed to read in its entirety. If you can't bring yourself to do that, here's a tantalizing morsel to tempt you.
A mere shift of power from Republicans to Democrats would not, in itself, be enough to give us sensible health care reform. While Democrats would have written a less perverse drug bill [Medicare D drug coverage - Dak], it's not clear that they are ready to embrace a single-payer system. Even liberal economists and scholars at progressive think tanks tend to shy away from proposing a straightforward system of national health insurance. Instead, they propose fairly complex compromise plans. Typically, such plans try to achieve universal coverage by requiring everyone to buy health insurance, the way everyone is forced to buy car insurance, and deal with those who can't afford to purchase insurance through a system of subsidies. Proponents of such plans make a few arguments for their superiority to a single-payer system, mainly the (dubious) claim that single-payer would reduce medical innovation. But the main reason for not proposing single-payer is political fear: reformers believe that private insurers are too powerful to cut out of the loop, and that a single-payer plan would be too easily demonized by business and political propagandists as "big government."
The italics are mine.
Or perhaps you would prefer something more lighthearted or celebratory. Think of it as your reward for paying attention.
Photo note: The doll hospital at Antique Asylum -- you know it's not a real hospital because of the white Chevy, the Blue Willow and the chenille bedspread.
Posted by Dakota at November 12, 2006 12:30 PM