Barack Obama planlægger en revidering af det amerikanske sundhedssystem, det er en del af hans valgløfter – at gøre sundhed tilgængelig for alle pengepunge, dog uden at afskaffe det grundlæggende privatforsikrede sundhedssystem. Hvad betyder det i praksis? Paul Wehner og Paul Ryan har her et bud. Der er tale om at opstille en alternativ forskringsmodel, der via statsstøtte er så attraktiv, at den vil kunne udkonkurrere – crowding out – de private modeller. Om det er et realistisk scenarie, vil vi snart få at se.
For all his talk of allowing consumers to select their own health-care coverage, Mr. Obama’s proposal, as he laid it out in his campaign, will provide strong financial incentives for employers and individuals to sign up with a new, Medicare-style government plan for working-age people and their families. This plan will almost certainly use a price-control system similar to the one in place for Medicare, allowing it to charge artificially low premiums by paying fees well below private rates. These low premiums will serve as a magnet for enrollment and will devastate the private companies trying to compete in the health-insurance market. The result will be the nationalization of the health-care sector, which today accounts for 16% of U.S. gross domestic product.
Nationalizing health care will be profoundly detrimental to the quality of American medicine. In the name of cost control, the government would make private investment in medical innovation far riskier, and thus delay the development of potentially lifesaving treatments.
Mere om medicinsk innovation i en amerikansk kontekst her.
Det skal i øvrigt siges, at de to herrer har været hhv rådgiver for Bush og republikansk kongresmedlem, og nok kommer lige en postgang for sent med denne bemærkning:
If conservatives hope to win converts to our cause, we need to understand this new moment and put forward an agenda that reforms key institutions in a way that advances individual freedom, without creating an unacceptable level of insecurity.
Det havde I otte år til at gøre, drenge! Men det var jo netop den fleksible tilgang, som Bush-regeringen droppede med “considerate, big goverment conservatism.”