In discussing the nation’s health care system, “broken” is the most common descriptive term. Almost all stakeholders seem to agree on the adjective. Not Mr. Tevi Troy, writing recently for the Weekly Standard.
Health Care Reform Can be a Stimulus
I have argued that a major overhaul of health care would be a significant stimulus to the economy by leveling the competitive playing field for both employers and workers – those currently working, those out of work and those working on the margins. In the long term, it would free up capital, both the monetary kind and the human kind, for more productive investments.
It does not surprise me that Congress might see things differently. The major health care provisions in the stimulus package that will be approved by the Senate have very little to do with stimulus and everything to do with safety net. Support for state Medicaid programs and provisions related to COBRA. There are two small provisions in the package that do attempt to push the reform agenda a tiny fraction of an inch.
There is a provision in both House and Senate versions of the bill for for further development of electronic medical records and there is money for “comparative effectiveness research”.
These are hardly earth shaking provisions, unless you are listening to the likes of Mr. Tevi Troy. To Mr. Troy and his ilk, these measures are the Ft. Sumter of the liberal war on the US health care system.
What planet to these people live on? Continue reading ‘The Stimulus and the right wingers on health care’
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