Republican Idiocy on Health Care is a Communicable Disease – Now Democrats are Catching It

Policy by the Ignorant

The total lack of understanding of health care economics by Republicans is staggering.  But it turns out Democrats are just as deranged, at least some of them are.

California, as usual is leading the way.  In this situation, that is not a good thing.  There is this .

A handful of legislators in Democratic states — some positioning themselves to run for higher office — have proposed single-payer bills, including in New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Only in California does the legislation appear to have at least a modest chance of being approved this year.

Even there, State Senator Ricardo Lara, an author of the bill, said his legislation would not clear the State Assembly without detailing how expanded coverage would be financed. The proposal currently lacks a complete funding plan.

The bill would mandate far more comprehensive access to health care, with no out-of-pocket costs, for all California residents at an estimated cost of $400 billion annually. Roughly half would come from existing public money spent on health care, but the rest would require new taxes. Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat who once campaigned for president supporting single-payer care, has questioned how the state can plausibly foot the bill.

Health care systems are broken.  But the idea of making health care free for all does not fix the problem, it only makes it worse.  And end to the fee-for-service structure and new competition to produce healthy Americans not just cure preventable diseases is the answer.  If Dems pursue this idea that somehow free health care is something that can be given by government at no cost they will deserve to lose, again.