| binary solo said: Personally I prefer subsidised health care over subsidised health insurance because the tax dollars go directly into the health care system rather than to insurance companies. |
So do I. And I'm vehemently opposed to both. But to do it this way is just incredibly idiotic. It perverts literally everything it touches. It turns private insurance into a sort of for-profit welfare scheme that can't do what insurance is supposed to do (assess risk). It sets the precedent of forcing people to do business with private companies. If a Republican president tried that, Democrats would recognize it as the corporate carveout that it is. As it is, they feel compelled to rush to its defense because of stupid team-based politics whatever their misgivings about it (and also because they passed the damned thing). You do them a disservice by calling Obama a closet Republican. Dems are plenty capable of engaging in unproductive corporatism all on their own. If you're going to socialize medicine, then go whole hog and kick the middle man out of the way. Doing it this way to avoid being called socialist is both dishonest and incredibly stupid and inefficient. I really don't think it's even possible to have done this in a worse and more cackhanded way.
But my original point was that just because people are in theory being forced to pay for their own health insurance, doesn't mean it's going to be some kind of budget neutral program. Costs are going to spiral out of control just like they would with any other entitlement.
