Rhinocrisy

I am tempted to write 750 words on this and put everybody to sleep. Instead, let me keep it short. Every American attempt to improve the condition of health insurance makes me want to throw men in suits from rooftops. The latest is Massachusetts’ clever scheme that will require all residents who can afford it to buy health coverage and will subsidize insurance for the remainder.

This plan will give private companies a captive market, reducing what minimal incentive they now have to keep prices down.

People who compare the situation to car insurance, which is also mandatory in the U.S., forget that people who don’t want car insurance don’t need to get a car. There is no similar way to opt out of Massachusetts’ health plan.

The only people who opposed the plan were standing up for small businesses, which will be penalized if they fail to offer their workers health coverage. While it is valid to note that some marginal businesses will close down or move when faced with the new cost, that is beside the point. The problem is not that this law is anti-business but that it is nowhere near anti-business enough. It picks on small businesses while providing a guaranteed cash stream to the big insurers.

The alternative is just the other side of that huge one-way mirror called the Canadian border. Go over and take a look sometime.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled feature: A 3 a.m. demonstration against the IMF in Washington D.C. that I somehow completely missed! (I must not have been at the Fairmont that night.) I find screaming to be stupid, annoying and unhelpful, but this event sounds funny all the same.