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Anyway, what I find more disjointed isn't the claim about Massachusetts – I largely agree with that one. What I find inconsistent is Krugman's rush to a national public plan at all in light of problems at the state level still. The most recent post on my blog is one about exactly this – letting the states take the initiative on health reform the way they did with welfare reform. To the extent that any states perform especially well, those best practices can be applied elsewhere. Some things can and should be done nationally this year: eliminating the tax priveleges of employer coverage, adjusting Medicare fee-for-service, and perhaps expanding Medicaid somewhat if that seems appropriate. But I don't understand the logic of the rush to the national public plan. One thing I actually did find refreshing and different in this morning's article was that for once Krugman somewhat silenced the public plan drumbeat and outlined in broader terms what needs to be accomplished.

I'm amazed that Krugman, as the preeminent Keynesian today when it comes to macro policy, completely ignores Keynes's advice on reform:

"You are engaged on a double task, Recovery and Reform;–recovery from the slump and the passage of those business and social reforms which are long overdue. For the first, speed and quick results are essential. The second may be urgent too; but haste will be injurious, and wisdom of long-range purpose is more necessary than immediate achievement… even wise and necessary Reform may, in some respects, impede and complicate Recovery."

Good post Don – have a good weekend everybody.

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In reality, at some point, we will all have to "embrace hospice as a legitimate option", but in the government health care meat grinder, it'll be the government deciding when that will be instead of you and your family.

But, it's better, faster, cheaper!!!

This guy really thinks Americans are his Lordship's serfs.

C'mon, Tinkerbell!
.

Who could have predicted such a thing?

But that's OK, what he lacks by way of a clue he more than makes up for with arrogance.

They were rolled over by a different arrest.

How much health care money flows as graft?

Obamacare (which Obama wants passed, but has yet to read – just as the MA police acted stupidly, although he is not familiar with the details of what happened because he was too busy donning verbal black-face to speak to his "homies" at the NAACP) is, in fact, better, faster, cheaper and allows more access than the system we have now.

How can this be?

Well, according to Obama's glorious speechifying, MILLIONS of Americans are rolling around in the gutters and dying like mangy dogs in the streets for lack of basic healthcare and millions more are forced to make heavy sacrifices of beer, pizza and 52-inch plasmas to scrape together the money to buy health insurance coverage which never covers anything because the first time you need a cast for Timmy's broken arm, the insurance company drops you like a hot potato.

He will fix all that by allowing everyone to die waiting for healthcare in or around the hospital as they wait to get referrals from their overloaded primary care physicians. So, you do get access to the hospital, it's better than dying in the gutter and it's cheaper than actually treating you. Or at least, he thinks that's probably in the bill but will confirm when he finally gets around to reading it – hopefully around 3-6 months after it's rammed through congress and passed into law.

If the solution is unappealing to you, don't worry. If you can afford it, Cuba is just a short plane ride from Florida and I'm sure Doctors Without Borders will eventually commence operations In the USSA – that is, if they don't close the borders to stop desperate, overtaxed and unemployed people fleeing this great land of ours to find jobs in Mexico.

Think it can't happen here?

This must be referring to subsidized plans. My private MA mandated plan has had sequential premium changes of approximately minus 1% and plus 3% the last two years. In addition, my mandated plan (single)is between $2000 and $4000 cheaper per annum than my previous non-group plan with the same vendor, depending on deductible use. The savings likely come from a combination of the deductible and a pooling for individuals with small business plans.

Regards, Don

Did you miss the part where they were in New Jersey? How can you expect anything in New Jersey to be free from corruption?

The most important datapoint, it would seem to me, would be the difference in cost growth of private vs. public plan, and yet that's the very datapoint the Cato analysis omits. It does make you wonder why they omitted it – but I honestly expect it is the subsidized people, and that they are growing faster than private plans.

This pub goes into more detail on why they might be growing faster: http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/411820_mass_health_reform.pdf, it specifically mentions the subsidized pool, and describes why that trend shouldn't continue if it is simply the subsidized pool.

But all this reinforces the underlying point – look closely at what's going on in the states and what they get right and what they get wrong before doing anything drastic.