On healthcare, again ...again

Well since I rely heavily on The Economist as my primary news source, it should come as no surprise to find that I'm essentially echoing their views, albeit in a much less eloquent way. For those of you that aren't avid readers of the news magazine, its important to note that even given these critiques The Economist supported the passage of this bill based on the humanitarian imperative of insuring more people. I can't link to the article for non-subscribers, but here are a few excellent excerpts from their business commentator who puts it far better than I did (feel free to ignore my previous post as this pretty much sums it up):

"Obamacare has taken the most idiosyncratic feature of American health care - the fact that the onus for providing health insurance falls first and foremost on companies rather than on individuals- and set it in concrete."

"Left-wingers point out that employer-provided health care fails to control costs ... conservatives argue that costs would come down if individuals rather than companies were responsible for their own insurance. But Mr. Obama insisted from the first that Americans who liked their existing cover would be able to keep it"

"General Motors complains that providing health care adds $1500-2000 to the cost of every car it produces in America" (!!!)

"... employees feel no compunction about undergoing expensive treatments, since the company pays. The fact that employer-provided insurance is untaxed blunts employers' incentives to control cost"

and finally

"overhauls of something as complicated as America's health-care system only come once in a generation."

Let's hope they're wrong.