Healthcare: private VS public

Paul Krugman is a pretty smart guy but his recent column on health insurance left me with a sour taste in my mouth. He rails against commercial health insurance providers using pre-existing conditions and sophisticated screening to discriminate amongst customers when it comes to the premiums they must pay for this insurance. Well, duh! That sounds like what auto insurers do. Why should health insurance be any different? Because healthcare is a basic human right (unlike driving)? OK, fine, but who is going to pay for that healthcare? It doesn't make sense to force private enterprise into a contract where they are likely to lose money. That's not capitalism! If you want to provide healthcare to everybody, including those who are very likely to require expensive treatment, then it can't be funded by individuals via insurance because that just doesn't work. To have universal healthcare a single payer system is needed, although the actual treatment can be provided via a competitive marketplace like Canada has. Calling it insurance is just confusing if you also want universal coverage.

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Nov 01, 2008

Sita said...

Private healthcare might work for those who can afford it. For others it is a task that can only be shouldered by the state itself. The state must pay insurance rates for the poor and for those kicked out by private companies. That is to guarantee a minimum of decent health care. Pharmacy should use a part of its money to help people in developping countries needing costly medicine. There should be a bonus-system for a healthy life style.

Jul 25, 2009

besthealthcarerate said...

Companies that add to the health problems of Americans should be taxed, and this revenue should be used to provide healthcare to those that qualify for state help. Insurance companies should be required to except everyone, but everyone should be required to get insured.

But healthcare must stay in the private sector, or we will all pay dearly for an inefficient goverment run system that will drive up taxation.

Market-based insurance would not only be more affordable medical insurance, it would also provide consumers with more choice. Because savings come from a tax credit, the option to choose insurance companies, policies and doctors is left to the person who purchases the insurance, not a group of politicians. Health insurance needs vary widely from one individual to the next and having the ability to choose the options that work best for an individual's circumstances is fundamental to quality health care.

Several different market-based solutions could help low and modest-income individuals and families, who do not have access to an employer group medical insurance plan, find affordable health coverage. Tax credits, tax deductions, health savings accounts and high-risk pools are all market-based options to make affordable medical insurance a reality for uninsured people who are working, but cannot afford medical insurance plans.

John Goodman is the president of the National Center for Policy Analysis and he wrote this!!.

This is from the Joint Economic Committee minority report. Congress is considering legislation that would:

Raise the top two income tax brackets from 33% and 35% to statutory marginal rates of 36% and 39.6%;

Bring back the “hidden tax increases” of PEP (the Personal Exemption Phaseout) and Pease (the limitation on itemized deductions), which raise the effective marginal rates in the top two brackets to 41% for a family of four; and

Create a graduated surtax of 2%, 3% or 5.4% as part of “health reform,” which would raise the marginal tax rate for a family of four in the top two brackets to a range from 43.3% to 46.2%.
Additionally, income distributed as wages to a small business owner would be subject to an extra 2.9% Medicare tax.

All combined, small business owners could be subject to marginal tax rates as high as 49% and data from the Joint Committee on Taxation shows that at least 55% of the revenue raised by increasing the top two rates would come from small business income.

This would not include an average 7% in state and local taxes. It would also not include the House health bill’s wage tax of up to 8% on businesses that do not offer health insurance or do not pay for enough of their employees’ coverage or the 2.5% income tax on individuals who have not purchased health insurance.

Quik Thinking

Healthcare: private VS public

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