Posted by
"Mind and Morals" Michael Coyne on Wednesday, September 09, 2009 6:38:00 PM
President Obama and the Democrats, in hopes of passing a new
version of the healthcare bill, have altered the “public option”—a
government-run healthcare plan that would essentially decimate the insurance
market—and
replaced it with a “trigger option.”
The new “trigger option” would create a public option system
only in those areas where one insurance company has a virtual monopoly over the
local industry. For example, in a region of Alabama, there is more or less only
one major health insurance company, so if people want insurance, they are all
but forced to go through this company. Thus, the free market has failed in
these regions and government interjection would appear to help with the
quasi-monopoly situation. I like this idea, to a point.
Don’t get me wrong, government intervention is almost never
the way to go, but, if this “trigger” plan were to set up government health
care companies and provide them with some sort of path to privatization, then
we could see the shot in the arm that the healthcare industry that Americans
seem to want, without the possibility of a government takeover. More
specifically, rather than Congress simply making a healthcare plan, Congress
would launch a healthcare company, which, after a couple of years, would be
allowed to enter the private market and to “cut the cord” from its mother, the
Government.
This would, however, only be effective if, as yet another
option, incentive-based, privately-owned health savings accounts were brought
into the picture. Because, let’s face it, not everyone wants health insurance.
John Stossel recently did a piece on ABC’s 20/20 that illustrated that people
who do not buy health insurance actually save money over those who do buy
insurance.
Now, here’s why the vision articulated above will not see
the light of day anytime soon: first, the Democrats are split over whether or
not to include a government option of any sort to begin with. While most, if
not all Republicans are firmly in the “no” camp, there isn’t enough agreement
to move forward. Second, the Democrats will never agree to a path to
privatization because they fundamentally distrust the free market. Which is a
shame, because what I have here is exactly the compromise that would save this
debate.