Overview of Democratic Health Plan
Posted on Friday, Feb 8, 2008 at 10:12 AM in Politics
On Brad Delong's blog Richard Eskow Talks to David Cutler:
David Cutler: I'd like to start with a general comment.... Two possible reasons why people don't have health coverage are usually given. One is that the uninsured are gaming the system. The other is that they can't afford it and don't know where to get it. Most of the literature suggests that the explanation is mostly the latter. That means the single biggest thing we can do to help the uninsured is to make coverage affordable and accessible.
That's why all the Democratic plans focus on removing excessive profits where they exist, improving information technology, and so forth. All the plans do those things, although I think the Obama plan does the most.
The mandate argument is: You must buy something %u2013 but I'm not going to tell you what it is, how much it will cost, or where you're going to get it.
It comes down to this. You'll never get someone to buy something if it's not affordable and not accessible. People just don't do it.
Jump over and read the whole thing.
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