Private, Patient-centered Health Insurance
(Ed. note: This column by Arlene Wohlgemuth ran in last week's issue of Texas Weekly, which asked four policy and legislative experts the same question: What version of health care reform would be best for Texas?)
Congress stands on the cusp of passing health care legislation that would be tremendously harmful to Texas.
In August, the Texas Public Policy Foundation released a report by internationally renowned economist Dr. Arthur Laffer which concluded that health care reforms based on President Barack Obama's agenda would lead to much higher health-care inflation and slower economic growth; cost every Texas resident an ...
Comments (3)
EHascal
You have to take everything Wohlgemuth says with a grain of salt. She was the author of HB 2292 in 2003 that gutted almost every social safety net Texas had. The bill removed hundred of thousands of children off of CHIP, took away child abuse prevention program budgets, and basically tried to privatize a large porting on HHSC.I remember say that any of these shortfalls could easily be taken up by charities. As if...
Arlene sees privatization as the solution to any problem which is no surprise when here own staffers left in 2003 to consult and cash in on the privatization gold rush (http://www.offthekuff.com/mt/archives/004700.html#004700).
Groups like the Center for Public Policy Priorities (CPPP) would have a far more believable analysis of health care reform than a highly compensated lobbyist.
eamartinez
Wohlgemuth's voucher system is nothing more than welfare for the private sector -- in this case, public dollars for a private health insurance system that wastes billions of dollars a year and whose primary aim is to deny coverage for the sick, not ensure it. Why is it that every "market-based" solution for these immoral hacks ends up being an ask for a handout from the government.
We can go through a whole series of tit-for-tat on whether vouchers and savings accounts are the way to go on health care, but the bottom line is that the health of a human being isn't a widget. A healthy beating heart in a healthy man, woman or child isn't just another commodity to be traded. That where the TPPF get's it wrong. From their very first value assumption (and the everything that follows).
To them, you, me and everyone we know is a thing with a value attached -- nothing more, nothing less. And their goal is to extract that value, no matter the long-term or social cost.
ggarza476
So privatization, deregulation turns out not to be such a good idea unless you have your hand in the cookie jar. Take a look at the electric bills in and around the area were deregulation is current. Electric bills are outragous, I have seen homeonwers electric bills in the range of $500.00 upwards of $800.00 per month and some higher. When the idea for deregulation was sold, I recall verbage such as competition will create a market wherein the end user will benifit. Who actually benifits, sorry I am not a sucker for this type of articles.