It's time to stop calling it insurance - the topic is healthcare and how (and how much) to pay for it, not insurance and how to pool risk. Confusing the two lets idiots argue about definitions.
The fundamental truth is that almost nobody can have all the care they want, and some form of rationing will continue to be enforced by the universe we live in. Whether that rationing is via long waits, high prices, government priority lists, or simple unavailability can be argued, but the basic scarcity can't.
Of course, politicians (including nobel-winning economists acting as politicians in the op-ed pages) can't come out and just say that, so they lie and spin to allow their supporters to believe otherwise.
Strawman. The point isn't that health care is not scarce, and you will not find such a contention in Krugman's article. The point is that tens of thousands of Americans die every year from being uninsured, and Mitt Romney is blatantly lying about it
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I do prefer to acknowledge that resource scarcity causes premature death, rather than claiming that insurance changes or small changes in redistribution policies can fix it.
I further agree that our current methods are insanely wasteful and unfair. I think much of this problem is caused by calling it insurance and trying to insulate people from the costs.
I'm not even claiming that Romney is likely to make this any better. Of course he's lying - everyone is, as far as I can tell. Politicians telling lies aren't newsworthy.
Until someone's willing to take on the insurance industry and AMA, in order to separate out the issues of cost of providing and administering healthcare vs the issue of how much redistribution is necessary to provide some level to everyone, it's safe to expect that anyone who makes any public statement on the topic is lying.
Politicians stretching the truth isn't news. Politicians saying something diametrically opposed to the truth, on an issue of central importance, is still news.
Has Obama ever said anything this outrageous about healthcare?
my outrage meter for politicians lying has been broken for some time, so I'm not sure if "nobody will be compelled to buy coverage" or "there will be no rationing", or "no tax on cadillac plans" qualify, but they seem pretty comparable to me.
The fundamental truth is that almost nobody can have all the care they want, and some form of rationing will continue to be enforced by the universe we live in. Whether that rationing is via long waits, high prices, government priority lists, or simple unavailability can be argued, but the basic scarcity can't.
Of course, politicians (including nobel-winning economists acting as politicians in the op-ed pages) can't come out and just say that, so they lie and spin to allow their supporters to believe otherwise.
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I further agree that our current methods are insanely wasteful and unfair. I think much of this problem is caused by calling it insurance and trying to insulate people from the costs.
I'm not even claiming that Romney is likely to make this any better. Of course he's lying - everyone is, as far as I can tell. Politicians telling lies aren't newsworthy.
Until someone's willing to take on the insurance industry and AMA, in order to separate out the issues of cost of providing and administering healthcare vs the issue of how much redistribution is necessary to provide some level to everyone, it's safe to expect that anyone who makes any public statement on the topic is lying.
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Has Obama ever said anything this outrageous about healthcare?
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