Super Size That

Poor Michael Bloomberg, health activist and Mayor of New York City.  A judge has struck down his attempt to ban non-diet, sugary soft drink sales at NYC eateries.  Bad idea right from the start.  He would have been better off with a sin tax approach.  Bloomy was willing to exempt diet sodas,  which was another bad idea.  Let's say 25 cents on any soft drink 16 oz. or under, and 50 cents over that.

I've always wondered; If we got rid of every government funded medical program, took all the money we spend on them, add all the tobacco tax money, alcohol taxes, add a soda tax, and a surcharge on all restaurant meals, would we have enough cash to pay for single payer?  I wish I had the resources to do that math, because I bet we'd be close.

One of the great political feats of the right has been their successful campaign to get people thinking of taxes as this separate thing in their lives.  The reality is, increased taxes to pay for a true, federal health care program, would actually mean less out-of-pocket money, over the course of an average life, than we now spend as individuals.  I don't know about anyone else.  But, if my lifetime health costs went down, I wouldn't care that I was paying the government rather than an HMO.  

Master Plan?

Has this been Barack Obama's master plan? He must have known, when he became president, that the health insurance companies would fight any sort of reform and regulation, tooth and nail. From the start, the president held out his hand to the insurance companies, Republicans, and conservative Democrats, and from the start, they've been less than cooperative. But this week, things took a more dramatic turn, with the release of a manipulated study showing that any sort of government reform would actually make things far worse for our already intolerable health care system. Were the HMO's crowing in triumph over the body of a defeated Barack Obama?
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Well, if they were proclaiming victory, it may have been a little too early in the fight. Obama, on his Saturday radio address to the nation, came out fighting. The gist of it was that he had bent over backward to work with the insurers and they would have none of it. It looks as if the president is beginning a campaign to paint the insurance companies as enemies of the people, which, let's be honest, they are. What a great tactic. The health insurers, despite all evidence to the contrary, advertise themselves as caring, benevolent defenders of public health. Obama has maneuvered them into showing their true colors. The fight is a long way from over. (And in my opinion it won't be over until we have single payer.) But, the insurance companies have suddenly found themselves attacked by the most influential man in the world. And the theme of the attack is that he tried to be reasonable and work with the health care monopolies, and they just spit on the American consumer. Obama's call for the repeal of insurers anti-trust exemption is a great counter-offensive. Now, if he can do the same to bankers and credit card companies.

Questions No. 1 and 2

1. Is the Max Baucus health reform bill to HMO's what Medicare Part B was to big pharma?
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2. If we do get a public option, and it's price is set at a neutral cost level, and if illegal aliens pay for it with their own money, what difference does it make?