User Comments

1. 

   10 days ago

   jeremyjanson

   It's a pretty ugly bill. They pretty much took the absolute worst aspects of every single proposal (subsidized, co-op, socialist, laissez-faire) and added them up with no redeeming qualities:
   
   +Socialist - Rationing and reduction in R&D.
   
   +Laissez-Faire - You buy it, and it will be expensive. Only now, if you can't afford it, they throw you in jail instead of simply making you use the ER for everything.
   
   +Subsidized - Taxation paying for Profit Margin
   
   +Co-op - Little economy of scale.
   
   And this is the future health plan of the United States! HAZAAA!!!

   [reply]
   1. 

      9 days ago

      Agit8r

      I do hope we are exagerating the case, by it seems likely that we aren't
      
      do you know the bill #?
2. 

   9 days ago

   libertycast1

   H.R.3962
   
   Anyway I still argue in favor of laissez faire economics. I don't see anything wrong with antitrust and consumer protection laws in proper application. Limiting ones activities is one thing. Shackling them is entirely another. You tell them what they can't do, not what they must do. I still also argue that antitrust laws are severely lagging. One attempt in the 70s but beyond that nothing since the Great Depression. I'm sorry but times, tactics and technology has changed. So has lobbyism and tax laws. There is no way that the 20s and 30s will solve all of todays problems because it obviously isn't.
   
   I also think that true non profit coops would be a better alternative to single payer - though it is certainly not my first choice.

   [reply]
   1. 

      9 days ago

      Agit8r

      I think that by providing tax-incentives for purchasing (a la McCain's plan) along with some non-discrimination stipulations that would be offset by such subsidization would be less complicated and more meaningful. As it will be--if passed by the senate--the insurance companies make out like bandits
3. 

   9 days ago

   polybore

   Face it guys you are never going to get any meaningful policy out of "The House of Fudge".
   
   What gets polybore is, what is the big problem with getting "radical" legislation through? If it turns out to be crap there is nothing to stop lawmakers from changing it again in the future.

   [reply]
4. 

   9 days ago

   Agit8r

   'what is the big problem with getting "radical" legislation through'
   
   it is called LOBBYING!

   [reply]
   1. 

      9 days ago

      polybore

      We hear-by elect you to be our elected representative to do our will unless some big money organisation otherwise tells you so.
   2. 

      9 days ago

      Agit8r

      wow... if only WE really elected them in the first place