Health Care Minnesota
In reality, the U.S. guarantees health care for all residing in this country; it just doesn't guarantee who is going to pay for it.
by Leigh Pomeroy
Health care is certainly a top agenda item around the nation and around the state. With the Minnesota legislature now firmly in DFL controlled hands, health care initiatives that were once thought near impossible seem suddenly to be close to inevitable. Here are two issues to watch:
A complete smoking ban in all public places, including restaurants and most, if not all, bars. The bill has already been introduced, and Gov. Pawlenty has said that if passed he would sign it. An up-to-date list of all states and municipalities with smoking bans is here.
Guaranteed health care for all Minnesota children. After being an ogre on the health care issue in his previous administration, the Governor has appeared to reverse himself by calling for state-supported health care for all Minnesotans up to the age of 18. Granted, in previous budget cycles the state was staring at a deficit rather than the projected surplus today.
But once his plan was rolled out, it appeared to have less substance than what the legislature wanted. As always, what politicians say and what they do are two different things. Hopefully, the Governor and the legislature will come together for a workable plan.
Meanwhile, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, advocates for a single-payer health care system rallied in St. Paul. "Single-payer" and "universal" health care are catch terms but hardly mean the same thing. In reality, the U.S. guarantees health care for all residing in this country; it just doesn't guarantee who is going to pay for it.
Right now, all agree that the system is broken. The problem is so complex, however, that proposed solutions are more based on political philosophy than on good accounting principles like best outcomes for the cost inputs.
Vox Verax and Minnesota Monitor have covered several options in previous articles here and here.
by Leigh Pomeroy
Health care is certainly a top agenda item around the nation and around the state. With the Minnesota legislature now firmly in DFL controlled hands, health care initiatives that were once thought near impossible seem suddenly to be close to inevitable. Here are two issues to watch:
A complete smoking ban in all public places, including restaurants and most, if not all, bars. The bill has already been introduced, and Gov. Pawlenty has said that if passed he would sign it. An up-to-date list of all states and municipalities with smoking bans is here.
Guaranteed health care for all Minnesota children. After being an ogre on the health care issue in his previous administration, the Governor has appeared to reverse himself by calling for state-supported health care for all Minnesotans up to the age of 18. Granted, in previous budget cycles the state was staring at a deficit rather than the projected surplus today.
But once his plan was rolled out, it appeared to have less substance than what the legislature wanted. As always, what politicians say and what they do are two different things. Hopefully, the Governor and the legislature will come together for a workable plan.
Meanwhile, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, advocates for a single-payer health care system rallied in St. Paul. "Single-payer" and "universal" health care are catch terms but hardly mean the same thing. In reality, the U.S. guarantees health care for all residing in this country; it just doesn't guarantee who is going to pay for it.
Right now, all agree that the system is broken. The problem is so complex, however, that proposed solutions are more based on political philosophy than on good accounting principles like best outcomes for the cost inputs.
Vox Verax and Minnesota Monitor have covered several options in previous articles here and here.
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1 Comments:
"All agree the system is broken". They do? And who comprises the 'all' you talk about? I don't think the system is broken, although there are certainly people who have difficulty accessing the care they need. Is that an indictment of the entire system? Hardly.
If the system is truly broken, how is any level of government involvement going to fix it? The answer is through the 'ban' process you mention for cigarettes. As we have seen with cigarette bans, we are now seeing trans-fat being banned all over the country now, as well. But, you contradict yourself by saying solutions should be based on sound economic principles yet smoking bans and mandated coverage hardly rise to the level of sound economics.
Economics and incentives go hand in hand. We can combine incentives and the ban frenzy we are seeing and adopt the following strategies:
Allow tax deductions for health equipment such as running shoes, club membership dues, healthy food purchases, HSAs, etc. We should introduce a system of escalating taxes on food items based on fat/cholesterol/sodium/et al contents similar to how we tax cigarettes - the higher the fat/cholesterol/sodium/et al, the higher the tax. This would disincent people to purchase high fat/cholesterol/sodium/et al foods. We should also introduce a fine system for people who do not maintain certain weight and cholesterol standards and mandate semi-annual physicals for all people. Failing to make two visits per year is another fine...and so on. There are exceptions, of course, but the general idea is to force people into certain habits that help keep them healthy, ergo keeping costs down. The cigarette and trans-fat bans are only the tip of the iceberg if you think I am joking. I'm not and in my lifetime, we might see such 'reforms' being adopted by the health-care nazis.
The only way to rein in health care costs is make people own their health. With single-payer and/or universal systems where someone else is picking up the tab, there is no incentive for someone to take care of themselves. If I know that Leigh Pomeroy is going to pay my health care tab, I'll just go ahead and take another trip through the buffet line before heading to the State Fair to sample the finest in deep-fried cuisine.
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