Categories:
Economics of Health Care
From the Hartford (Ct.) Courant:
Universal Care Might Cost State Almost $18 Billion; Proposal Seen As Dead
Later in the story, a spokesman for the state’s governor is quoted.
“If 6 percent of the people need health insurance, the program should be focused on those 6 percent,” Cooper said.
The Left would like to blame people like Michael Cannon and me for the fact that we do not have single-payer health insurance. However, I take no credit. The idea of single-payer health insurance is self-discrediting.
Thanks to Mike Feehan for the pointer.
READER COMMENTS
caveat bettor
Apr 20 2007 at 6:21pm
Thanks for staying with this issue. Persistence is a powerful force!
Ning
Apr 20 2007 at 7:25pm
And yet single payer countries have better health care for less cost per capita than what the US has. Curious, that.
Michael E Sullivan
Apr 21 2007 at 6:50am
It was astounding to read that story and the quotes from people who said things like “The enormity of the cost was a shock!” These are my legislators, and they were probably dithering about this while I was in the building the other day discussing a bid.
I must be some kind of mutant, because I cannot *imagine* being a legislator and voting on this topic in committee without first doing a back of the envelope calculation on the cost. “Hmm. 3.5 million people in the state, about .5mil on medicare already — insurance for pretty average (39yo) me costs around 3-4000 a year depending on the coverage — that’s 9-12 billion. Is that remotely feasible? That would almost double the state budget? hmmm.. maybe we should just be looking at means-tested vouchers for people who don’t have employer coverage.”
How innumerate and/or knee-jerked do our legislators have to be that they never take 30 seconds to think about the math before sending it off the the budget office to prepare a plan?
asg
Apr 21 2007 at 4:14pm
And yet single payer countries have better health care for less cost per capita than what the US has. Curious, that.
Curious how people assert this completely apples-and-oranges comparison, often with no attribution or reference, as if it’s a debate-ender, you mean?
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