Friday, September 25, 2009

Are Conservatives for Keeping Free Healthcare Goodies?

I have been reading recently that conservative critics are arguing that one of the flaws of Obama's plan is that people will essentially have to pay more for their healthcare. http://thehill.com/opinion/columnists/dick-morris/59853-obamacare-taxes-for-everyone

Here is a quote from the article: "According to the Congressional Budget Office, the average uninsured person or family will have to pay between 15 and 20 percent of his or their total income on health insurance (counting premiums, deductibles and co-payments) before any of the subsidy in the Baucus bill kicks in. Even in the more generous House bill, the tab that the uninsured must pay is very, very high."

After this mess plays its course, conservatives will need to move in the future towards having people pay more for their healthcare. Unlike Obama's bill they won't be taxed and pay the government. But they will need to pay the doctor and hospital instead of the government if sanity is to be restored to the provision of healthcare services.

Conservatives should not be arguing that liberals want to take away the free goodies and that's bad. The bottom line is that whether you are insured or uninsured, for the system to work fairly people do need to pay more for what they use. If they don't use healthcare services they pay less. If conservatives frame this argument as though the plans are bad because patients will be responsible to pay more, that will come back to bite them when the American political pendulum swings back and they are in charge again.

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