This Obamacare fiasco - the President said he was gonna unilaterally force insurance companies to give people back their plans without, you know, first changing the law that created the mess - is most intriguing.
I was listening to politician Charlie Baker - who helped implement Romneycare in Massachusetts - on Boston radio (Howie Carr) earlier today.
A couple of things stood out. First, his admitting that insurance in Mass is very expensive; among the most pricey in the country. Part of the reason, he argued, was because Massachusetts imposes strict minimum standards. Second, that it has become bogged down by needless red tape that doesn't improve the health of citizens.
No matter how many times we go down this road we act surprised that a government department expands to the point of paralysis.
It just blows my mind we still think it's a good idea to have a massive entity with little accountability administer large facets of our lives.
It's not like we have people warning us.
Third, his assertion that it's not surprising Obamacare is imploding. The law was passed without Republican support. As such, the Democrats chose to not consider roughly half of the country; never mind that polls have consistently shown Obamacare was never popular. The assertion that the GOP played obstructionist rather than ally is simply not true. They did table amendments to the bill only to be outright ignored or threatened to be vetoed by the President.
The other is basic logic. It makes no sense to have a Federal national plan for what really is a local issue. Health and insurance is best managed at the state level.
In this way, Canada - despite its woefully rigid and mediocre system - employs a similar model in which we have a Federal "guideline" for health but it's the Provinces that run their own programs. Interestingly, our medicare cards are no portable.
In any event, best to decentralize and localize.
Local, local, local.
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Just how off to a rocky start Obamacare is off to?
A Texas man wrote to the President expressing frustration with the law.
Obama personally responded with a handwritten letter in which he used the word 'teabagger' and that Obamacare is not the 'smart political thing.'
On the last point, he could very well have the last laugh. We'll see.
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