Friday, February 17, 2006
Learning from a couple of big mistakes
["Retail Rumble," The Wall Street Journal, 16 February 2006.
Tarren Bragdon and Adam Brackemyre, "A SOP to Socialized Medicine," The Wall Street Journal, 16 February 2006.
There are plenty of good ideas floating around regarding health care reform - HSAs, consumer-driven health care, etc., but for some reason alot of government officials seem perennially drawn to the worst. Two cases in point are 1) requiring a few large companies to pay more for their workers' health care and 2) universal coverage programs. Fortunately, despite the havoc they may wreak while in place, bad ideas have a way of showing the rest of us what not to do:
1: America's retailers announced last week that they aren't especially keen to follow the steel, airline and perhaps auto industries into bankruptcy court. If Big Labor really wants a fight over mandated health insurance, it now has one.
The announcement came in the form of two federal lawsuits filed by the Retail Industry Leaders Association against the state of Maryland and Suffolk County, New York. At issue are the "Wal-Mart" laws that both jurisdictions recently passed, which would require a few large companies to pay more for their workers' health care. The lawsuits argue the statutes are "discriminatory," which may be the legal understatement of the year since both target only a few employers.
2: Welcome to the Pine Tree state, where a program that the governor claims has saved the state millions of dollars means that your taxes go . . . up. Maine is the home of Democratic Gov. John Baldacci's Dirigo Health, which regulates the state's health-care system and includes a subsidized health-insurance program. (Dirigo is the state's motto, Latin for "I lead.") When the law creating Dirigo Health was signed, proponents said it would reduce cost-shifting and health-system costs and ultimately cover all 130,000 uninsured Mainers within five years, including 31,000 uninsured in year one.
It hasn't worked out that way. Through the first nine months only 1,600 previously uninsured individuals enrolled in Dirigo Health's insurance product, called DirigoChoice. The other 6,000 who enrolled simply traded their private health insurance for taxpayer-subsidized DirigoChoice. The program continues to spend millions subsidizing insurance for those already insured.
[Devon Herrick, "Health Savings Accounts: The Future Of Health Care For Kansans," The Flint Hills Center, 14 February 2005.
John McClaughry, "Patient Power: A Health Care Reform Agenda for Kansas," The Flint Hills Center, May 2004.]
Tarren Bragdon and Adam Brackemyre, "A SOP to Socialized Medicine," The Wall Street Journal, 16 February 2006.
There are plenty of good ideas floating around regarding health care reform - HSAs, consumer-driven health care, etc., but for some reason alot of government officials seem perennially drawn to the worst. Two cases in point are 1) requiring a few large companies to pay more for their workers' health care and 2) universal coverage programs. Fortunately, despite the havoc they may wreak while in place, bad ideas have a way of showing the rest of us what not to do:
1: America's retailers announced last week that they aren't especially keen to follow the steel, airline and perhaps auto industries into bankruptcy court. If Big Labor really wants a fight over mandated health insurance, it now has one.
The announcement came in the form of two federal lawsuits filed by the Retail Industry Leaders Association against the state of Maryland and Suffolk County, New York. At issue are the "Wal-Mart" laws that both jurisdictions recently passed, which would require a few large companies to pay more for their workers' health care. The lawsuits argue the statutes are "discriminatory," which may be the legal understatement of the year since both target only a few employers.
2: Welcome to the Pine Tree state, where a program that the governor claims has saved the state millions of dollars means that your taxes go . . . up. Maine is the home of Democratic Gov. John Baldacci's Dirigo Health, which regulates the state's health-care system and includes a subsidized health-insurance program. (Dirigo is the state's motto, Latin for "I lead.") When the law creating Dirigo Health was signed, proponents said it would reduce cost-shifting and health-system costs and ultimately cover all 130,000 uninsured Mainers within five years, including 31,000 uninsured in year one.
It hasn't worked out that way. Through the first nine months only 1,600 previously uninsured individuals enrolled in Dirigo Health's insurance product, called DirigoChoice. The other 6,000 who enrolled simply traded their private health insurance for taxpayer-subsidized DirigoChoice. The program continues to spend millions subsidizing insurance for those already insured.
[Devon Herrick, "Health Savings Accounts: The Future Of Health Care For Kansans," The Flint Hills Center, 14 February 2005.
John McClaughry, "Patient Power: A Health Care Reform Agenda for Kansas," The Flint Hills Center, May 2004.]
