Regarding Health Care

Will Rogers famously said, “It isn’t what we don’t know that gives us trouble, it’s what we know that ain’t so.”[1] So it is with the health care debate in this country. Quite a few “facts” offered to the public as truth are simply wrong and often intentionally misleading. It seems clear that no truly productive solution will emerge when these false facts represent our common starting point. So, this essay takes on the modest task of simply disabusing its readers of some untrue notions about health care.

Link: Health Care Mythology – From RCP

The quote above is taken from an essay by Clifford Asness (linked above). I don’t really have anything to add to the debate, but I thought this essay pointed out a lot of concerns which I have, and I think people should be thinking about when considering such a massive and important proposal to change the way our health care system works.

The author is a little snarky at times and obviously is coming from a more conservative/libertarian perspective (he throws around the term “socialist” perhaps a bit too much), but overlooking that I think he has a lot of valid points.

If anyone has some opposing responses that might refute some of this please feel free to respond!

Bob

I finally got around to reading this. I think we argued over much of this yesterday, but he does raise some interesting points. The main problem I see with his logic is that unbridled free enterprise leads to the destruction of the middle class, which we are already seeing here. In a democracy, this leaves the poor in control of everything that happens, because there are 10 times more poor than rich, with no middle class to buffer the consequences. This is turn leaves the rich and successful no choice but to usurp more power, in order to curtail freedoms and democracy in an effort to protect their riches and successes. Putting it another way, government and the wealthy start working together to protect their own personal interests, which is, of course, what is going on right now. Short of a natural disaster, there is really no way to stop this short of a revolution, where you might get a chance to start over. The supposition or weakness in this argument is that the haves, be they government figures or private individuals, will not give up any of their power or wealth to protect and ensure a viable middle class – ie: man is basically base or evil, not good. This may not be true, and could change, but I am not of the opinion that it will.
Bob

I finally got around to reading this. I think we argued over much of this yesterday, but he does raise some interesting points. The main problem I see with his logic is that unbridled free enterprise leads to the destruction of the middle class, which we are already seeing here. In a democracy, this leaves the poor in control of everything that happens, because there are 10 times more poor than rich, with no middle class to buffer the consequences. This is turn leaves the rich and successful no choice but to usurp more power, in order to curtail freedoms and democracy in an effort to protect their riches and successes. Putting it another way, government and the wealthy start working together to protect their own personal interests, which is, of course, what is going on right now. Short of a natural disaster, there is really no way to stop this short of a revolution, where you might get a chance to start over. The supposition or weakness in this argument is that the haves, be they government figures or private individuals, will not give up any of their power or wealth to protect and ensure a viable middle class – ie: man is basically base or evil, not good. This may not be true, and could change, but I am not of the opinion that it will.

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Regarding Health Care

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