Mickey Kaus (who favors universal health care and doesn’t care how much it costs) is in rare Kausfiles form in reacting to the president’s press conference.
Nothing will change except the entire health care delivery system!
Which is going to be redesigned! By experts! Maybe get rid of fee for
service–Obama hinted at change along those lines. …
I know I’d like universal health coverage. That’s been debated ad
nauseam. What hasn’t been debated–what have been blessed mainly by
pronouncements from on high couched in euphemisms and deception–are [Budget Director Peter] Orszag’s “delivery system” changes. I’m worried that they will result
in denial of treatments that may be useful at saving and prolonging
lives. Obama’s refusal at his press conference to declare that all
covered treatments would still be covered is an example of what people
worry about. And Obama knows–or even scarier, maybe he doesn’t–that
the difficult decisions don’t involve cheap blue pills that are as good
as red pills, but treatments that are the “best” but also the “most
expensive” …
I know, I know. If we go to a system of universal health insurance, rationing is inevitable. Still, it’s fun to hear someone from the “health care for all” side who’s a veteran of social policy debates and remains skeptical about some of the implications of central planning. Read the whole thing.
