Holy crap! Ken Ulman has a plan for County wide health insurance. Few details exist at this time, but the goal is to create a model of health coverage that can be applied to other counties as well. I would assume that private entities would actually do the insuring and the County government would be essentially acting like an employer in offering the plan. Of course, I have no idea. My only hope is that the plan is not subsidized by tax revenues (fat chance). More details will be announced next month. Most voters would be in love with a plan that offers low cost health insurance, so if Ulman pulls this off in a politically palatable way he is clearly on his way to much higher office.
Since I am a shameless hack for the free market, I feel obligated to point to some recent columns from John Stossel, a few of which are related to health insurance.
3 comments:
Read carefully the news coverage, FM. Ulman is not proposing health insurance, and he was careful to clarify the point on the evening news. He is proposing accessible health care for the uninsured. There is a difference.
I imagine this is very similar to a discount plan, where services, primarily preventative in nature, are offered at steeply discounted rates.
Thanks for the clarification. The Sun’s article was not very good compared to the evening news coverage that I saw after I wrote the post. The evening news specified that this would not cost taxpayers anything, which is a plus.
I hate to burst your bubble, but the news articles I read in the Sun did not rule out taxpayer funding for at least part of the costs. The discounted rates don't come for free - the care providers aren't going to give away all of their profit margin.
Although I empathize with people who truly need help, I see this as nothing more than the transition of Howard County to a true WELFARE state. And, Ulman is using these types of prgrams to essentially buy his way to another term or higher office. Because many people like a handout and many people like "feel good" legislation/programs like this.
I think it would be interesting to examine just how many of the unisured people are (1) TRULY
uninsured and (2) truly elligible to be helped.
As for #1, what I mean is that the 20,000 - 30,000 uninsured people figure seems high. Did those people choose not to buy coverage? Are they dependent minors that could be insured byt their parents or as soon as they get a job?
As for #2, how many uninsured illegal aliens are being counted in the tabulation? If they are here illegally, tehy DO NOT deserve benefits and services paid for with taxpayer dollars.
I don't know where to find these statistics, but it would add to the discussion.
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