(2003-08-10) Health Care Benefits

Two items on HealthCare benefits:

0. An interesting approach to Universal coverage: require everyone to buy Health Insurance, then give vouchers to those who can't afford it. There's no getting around it, mandatory health insurance would essentially be a new tax. However, it is not unlike the state mandates that require drivers to purchase auto insurance or pay into state-run risk pools... Specifically, the Galen Institute suggests that the federal government offer tax credits of $1,000 per individual and $3,000 per family, to help currently uninsured Americans buy health insurance.

1. Criticism of the Prescription Drugs soon-to-be-law. Every great legislative push needs its welfare queen, and this time around the subject is a hypothetical elderly widow, forced to decide between food and pharmaceuticals. She exists, surely; the small segment of the population too wealthy for Medicaid yet too poor to make ends meet is more than a trick of rhetoric. Unfortunately, she is being used to extort benefits for everyone over 65, the vast majority of whom don't need them, many of whom are active voters. The elderly are easily the wealthiest segment of society, with a poverty rate little more than half that of the under 18-set who will help foot the bill... Baby Boomer-s want to be taken care of in the antiquated ways of their formative years rather than embrace a system that encourages choice and innovation. The biggest expansion of Medicare since its inception follows the third largest Tax Cut in U.S. history, giving new meaning to the term "compassionate conservatism." But if the baby boomers are leaving the younger generations with a huge bill to pay, at least they've also provided some sage advice: Never trust anybody over 30.