We Stand FIRM
FIRM Home
Blog Home
Recent Comments
RSS Feed
Contributors
Lin Zinser
Ari Armstrong
Diana Hsieh
Paul Hsieh
E-mail all the bloggers
Blogroll
Principles in Practice
Capitalism Magazine
Free Market Cure
Patient Power
ReasonPharm
Health Care BS
KevinMD
NCPA Digest
Socialized Medicine
State House Call
WSJ Health Blog
AFCM
Free Colorado
Articles
"Health Care Is Not A Right"
"Moral Health Care vs. 'Universal Health Care'"
"The Right Vision of Health Care"
Archives
January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
|
| | |
| Thursday, February 7, 2008 |
Maine's Failed Universal System
By Paul Hsieh, MD @ 12:01 AM   
StateHouseCall.org reports on more problems with Maine's attempt at universal health care:Maine has recently joined the growing list of failed state reforms. As with other faillures, the Dirigo Care program was shoved down the throats of a bewildered legislature by an egotistical governor who promised Nirvana.
...But look behind the spin and the report is a devastating examination of a program that was poorly conceived and doomed to fail from the beginning – as many of us had predicted. It finds: 1. After 20 months of operation only 11,000 were enrolled in DirigoChoice (out of a total uninsured population of 136,000), and over two-thirds of these were already covered. 2. Of the small companies eligible to participate, only 2.5% actually did. 3. The financing scheme (a “savings offset payment”) is impossible to measure or implement. 4. Almost as many people (3,600) had disenrolled from the program as were newly insured by it. Of course, these are continuations of the same problems reported by the New York Times in their April 30, 2007 article, "As Health Plan Falters, Maine Explores Changes".
Ironically, Maine and Hawaii are the two states cited by the left-leaning Commonwealth Fund as having the top two government "universal" health systems. If that's the case, I'd hate to see the badly-run systems.
The key problem, of course, is that the government cannot and should not run universal health care systems, because that necessarily involves violating the individual rights of patients, doctors, and insurers, by forbidding them from contracting for vital goods and services to their mutual advantage according to their own best rational judgment. These undesirable economic consequences are the inevitable result of such government interference in the free market.Labels: ME, States
E-mail Paul Hsieh, MD / PermaLink / Comments / Trackbacks / BlogThis
|
|
| Monday, April 30, 2007 |
Problems With Maine's Socialized Medical System
By Paul Hsieh, MD @ 4:44 PM
The state of Maine has also attempted to provide "universal coverage" for its residents for many years, with predictably poor results. According to this recent NY Times article, instead of saving money, the program costs continue to explode, and the state officials are considering what sort of cutbacks to implement. Rationing is just one short step away.
Interestingly enough, one of the supporters of the plan is quite explicit about the central problem. She states, "This program needs healthy people who don't get subsidized so it can prosper." In other words, it needs a massive forced redistribution of wealth from one group of citizens to pay for the health care of another group of citizens who otherwise couldn't pay for it themselves.
Yet for some reason, supporters of "universal health care" refuse to call these systems by their real name -- "socialized medicine"! (Via Jason Spears.)Labels: ME, States
E-mail Paul Hsieh, MD / PermaLink / Comments / Trackbacks / BlogThis
|
|
|
