Invoking Reagan to Fix Health Care?
In the August 9 Houston Chronicle Charles Krauthammer offered some
"outside of the box" thinking on health care reform. We need
some more of that, but, unfortunately he is quite off the mark with many of his
statements.
He suggests that the Tax Reform Act of 1986 be a model for health care
reform. What? By that he meant that inefficiencies should be
eliminated first thus reducing costs before any other reform should take
place. Right thinking, but the trouble with that is that Reagan's tax
reform, that he calls a miracle that "helped propel a 20-year economic
boom", was a dismal failure for the majority of Americans.
Republicans who have canonized Reagan as the patron saint of conservatism have
so desperately tried to write history to support that view. In fact, the
Tax Reform that he so fondly refers to raised taxes for many Americans.
The lowest tax rate was raised from 11% to 15%; some corporate taxes increased;
and the deduction for consumer interest was eliminated thus making it harder on
low income people. It was Reagan who began the era of deregulation and
tax cuts for the rich paid for by service cuts to the poor and middle income
people. That, along with a series of legislation that benefited corporations
over people, initiated the disappearance of the middle class and the creation
of a class of working poor that we see today. At the same time he began the
cutting of maintenance to our infrastructure that has brought us to its
dangerous levels of today. But that is typical conservative
selective memory.
Likewise, he seems to forget that Reagan's successor, George Bush, oversaw the
country go into a deep recession from which he could not recover, thus causing
him to lose to Clinton
in the next election. 20 year economic boom? How about 6.
Then Mr. Krauthammer goes on to state that our existing health care system is
of "...extreme high quality (but inefficient and therefore
expensive)...". Really? I hope he read the very Sunday
Chronicle that his article was featured in so he could read about the nearly
200,000 Americans that die each year from either medical mistakes or
preventable infections that occur in hospitals. And I guess he forgot
about the 15% of Americans that don't have health insurance at all. How
about the millions of people who are turned down for legitimate claims even
though they are paid up on their premiums?
Over-prescribing is a major cause of the inefficiency as he says, but mostly it's the 20% of revenue for administrative costs that private health insurance companies have. This, by the way, compares to roughly 2% for Medicare.
He also wants to totally eliminate the entire medical malpractice system and put medical "experts" in charge of determining malpractice payouts. I think that's called letting the fox watch the hen house.
I think there is merit in some of what he says, particularly about eliminating the deductibility of employer sponsored health insurance. Although, I think this is a disappearing employee benefit because of the skyrocketing costs of providing that benefit to employees fewer and fewer employers are offering it.
Nice try, Mr. Krauthammer, but your effort at invoking Saint Ronald to fix health care was based more upon a never ending love affair with the deceased POTUS than on any true lessons to be learned from his legislative favors to his rich buddies.
