« Prev Page

Why Krugman Is Wrong

Email To A Friend

Please fill in the following information and we'll email this link.

Obama's idea is a better one: Get every special interest out in the open on television, where the new president can cross-examine them and expose their phony rationalizations for charging $100 a pill or denying coverage to sick people (and Edwards, the former trial attorney, would be especially good at this). Then, having triumphed over the drug and insurance companies in the court of public opinion, the legislative victories will follow. It is, indeed, a fantasy to think these interests will roll over entirely, but they will get a much worse deal.

The Edwards alternative-to simply overrun them-is unrealistic. Even a 1932-style mandate at the ballot box (highly unlikely) wouldn't make them capitulate. Look what happened when New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, elected in 2006 with a huge mandate, tried to "steamroll" a bunch of hacks in Albany. He got his head handed to him.

To call Obama "anti-change," as Paul Krugman does, is anti-common sense. Leadership requires a mixture of confrontation and compromise, with room for the losers to save face. "They have to feel the heat to see the light," LBJ liked to say. That heat is best applied up close. In public. Across the big table.

« Prev Page

Member Comments

- Reply
- Report Abuse
Posted By: Omaar @ 05/12/2009 3:56:01 PM

Privatized Medicine and Health Insurance, has Worked [Perfectly] Huh...

[Not]

Over 50 Million Americans [Un-Insured] and Millions of Americans [Under-Insured] and Millions Filing Bankruptcy because they can't Pay their Costly Medical Billls...

Note: If you are not 100% Covered by your Insurance Company and which would include Acceptance of [Pre-Existing Conditions]...

You are not [Insured] !!

35%-40%-50%-70% Health Coverage is not [100% Covered]

Why should there be any [Changes] to hear these so called [Conservatives]

The Medical system is just [Fine] and there is no need to [Change] the Medical- Health Care System, in [America]

The only Secure forms of Health Coverage in this Nation is ...

[Medi-Caid] & [Medi-Care] and those forms of Health Coverages have ...

Specific [Guidelines]

PS: The Medi-Care Seniors need to have their Benefits [Streamlined] before they Bankrupt the Nation and the Next Generation. Because the [Medi-Care Seniors] get far Too Many Benefits and they don't contribute to the Medi-Care System, they [Drain It]
- Reply
- Report Abuse
Posted By: Omaar @ 05/12/2009 1:08:58 PM

Paul Krugman: On Sunday, the Obama administration announced it was working with trade associations, pharmaceutical groups and other stakeholders in the health care debate on a major effort that could save more than $2 trillion over the next decade. Full details will be revealed at the White House Monday.

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman notes today that one of the groups involved is a descendant of the lobbyists that helped kill health care reform with "Harry and Louise." Krugman says he's wary of the shift -- he thinks industry groups will use good will created by this move to try to kill a public health plan backed by progressives). Still, he calls today's developments "some of the best policy news I've heard in a long time."

The fact that the medical-industrial complex is trying to shape health care reform rather than block it is a tremendously good omen. It looks as if America may finally get what every other advanced country already has: a system that guarantees essential health care to all its citizens.

And serious cost control would change everything, not just for health care, but for America's fiscal future. As [Budget Director Peter] Orszag has emphasized, rising health care costs are the main reason long-run budget projections look so grim. Slow the rate at which those costs rise, and the future will look far brighter. I still won't count my health care chickens until they're hatched. But this is some of the best policy news I've heard in a long time.
- Reply
- Report Abuse
Posted By: Omaar @ 05/12/2009 1:02:23 PM

Canadian Health Insurance Vs. No Health Insurance Or Under-Insured Coverage.

Many Lives are Lossed each Year in America, because of Low Health Care Insurance, No Health Insurance Care or Rejected Health Insurance Claims, based on Loop Holes of Insurance Companies, looking to Avoid High Cost Associated with Under Insured Patients, whose Operations & Care [Cost Too Much]

The Insurance Companies Easy Out...

[Pre-Existing Conditions or Ailments]
---------------------

The Canadian Health Care System is a [Gem] Compared to America's Privatized Health Insurance [System]

Some say there are [47 Million Un-Insured]

I say that's Borderline Bull-Spit !

The number of Un-Insured and Under-Insured in America is Much Higher than that !!

If you count those with Low, Mid-Range or Insufficient Health Coverage, the Number is ..

[Far Greater] !!!

These People might as well be Considered [Un-Insured] because anyone whose not 100% Covered, in the Health Insurance World is [Un-Insured]

[30-40-50 % Insured]...

Is Not [100% Insured] or Covered.

An when they get that 1st Bill of...

[$ 100,000 - 400,000- 700,000]....

Its Bankruptcy or Suicide, Only 2 Ways Out, for the [Poor Souls]...

The 3rd Alternative, would be to Deny or Reject Hospital Care and simply Wither Away at Home or in some Low Cost Convalescent Care Center and thats [Suicidal] within itself, if you see, some of these Low Cost Facilities and how Patients are treated, you'd fully understand what I mean !!!
--------------------

Canadians have the Luxury of having National Health Care Coverage, so they can seek Help in Canada the USA or else where and know they will be Covered.

An if there's an [Emergency] that cannot wait, Canadians are Accepted here in the states, because the American Hospital System, know they'll be [Paid] Up Front...

Unlike the Unpredictable Privatized Insurance Companies in America, regarding their [Under- Insured Patients]

Lets face it, People are going to [DIE] no matter what, in any case, but it is Better to Die without Leaving Family Members in [DEBT] than to Leave Family Members Scrambling to Pay off your [HOSPITAL DEBTS] and that's the Vicious Cycle here in America.

Generational Debt via Gigantic Hospital Bills left Behind !!!