Saturday, January 24, 2009

Free stuff, somehow paid for – George Will reviews the move to expand SCHIP to, essentially, everybody: "Grace-Marie Turner, a student of health-care policies, says this SCHIP expansion is sensible -- if your goal is quickly to get as many people on public coverage as possible and to have children grow up thinking that it is normal for them to get their health insurance from the government. That is the goal."

As Will notes, the State Children's Health Insurance Plan was passed by a Republican Congress to fill the gap for people whose income precludes them from receiving Medicare Medicaid. But now, as all government programs, it's no longer just for "poor" kids in another signpost of our creeping socialism. Let no good deed go unpunished.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Note: I think you meant Medicaid rather than Medicare in your comments.

One other thing not being looked at (if at all) by Washington is the effect that this would have on HCPs. How many HCPs are going to be willing to take the potential increase in Medicaid patients?

Eric said...

You're right about Medicaid - fixed. You're also correct about the HCPs and the multiplier effect when private businesses have to absorb the added costs.