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I finally sat down and tapped out a policy for health care*. Upon looking, it's two different problems: Insurance reform so that they stop denying coverage for preexisting conditions and dropping people when they become sick. That's one problem, and a bill to solve it (alone) I would support. The second problem is lack of coverage for those who cannot afford it. My idea is simply to fix the problem: raise the eligibility for Medicaid.
Full stop. Those two measures would fix the problem. I see no need for mandates (a law that you MUST buy health insurance, or that employers must do so). That is a solution in search of a problem, or it's a gift to the health insurance industry -- giving them new customers. (But it strikes me as a burden to the budgets of poor people, who will now be told they MUST buy insurance. I say, B.S. - that (poor people) is what Medicaid is there for!)
Mandates and co-ops are GIFTS to the insurance industry -- and an unsustainable waste of tax dollars.
I oppose such corporate welfare, and since the final bill is likely to be a "mandates and co-ops" bill, I figure that I will be against the final bill that emerges this year.
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* Yes, I once ran for U.S. President as the 18-year-old in the race (in 1984), but I did not have a health care plank in my (then-) small platform of practical idealism. My small platform mainly said let's have - a balanced budget - flat taxes above one variable base exemption - a nuclear freeze - hydrogen cars - and, solar power satellites.
"The budget must be balanced, and taxes must be fair!" :)
