![\"\"](\"https:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/95\/268831142_f66ea276e3.jpg\")
2.\u00a0 FORECASTING SNOWE.\u00a0 The health care reform saga takes another turn<\/a>, or at least another trial balloon is being floated.\u00a0 Talk emerges from the White House that the Obama camp and Olympia Snowe, Republican of Maine, are working on a compromise in which a government option is realized only if other reforms amongst private insurers fail to meet certain targets.\u00a0 The idea is ostensibly this.\u00a0 If costs can be made sufficiently low through free-market mechanisms, then wonderful.\u00a0 If they cannot, if costs are still too high after a certain amount of time has elapsed, then this \u201ctriggers\u201d the institution of a government option.<\/p>\nIn theory, this is an excellent idea, and something I (and many others, of course) have advocated as a reasonable compromise.\u00a0 I like the way it asks both parties to be true to their convictions.\u00a0 Both parties want lowered costs, and, therefore, more accessible coverage for the poor.\u00a0 If Democrats are truly interested only in increasing choices and competition and lowering costs (i.e., if they do not mean this as a first step toward the socialization of health care), then they should be satisfied if those goals can be met through private market means.\u00a0 If Republicans are truly convinced that free market mechanisms are sufficient to lower costs and make coverage more accessible, then they should accept a test of this sort.<\/p>\n
The devil is in the details.\u00a0 Conservatives do believe that free market mechanisms are sufficient to lower costs, but the health-care market, even today, is not a free market.\u00a0 It is radically regulated and constrained by the state, and will only become moreso under the new reform bills.\u00a0 It is not only a question, given current rates, of whether private insurers can provide a reasonably reduced rate; it is a question of whether private insurers can do so with the added constraints and requirements and regulation <\/em>entailed in the rest of the health-care reform bill.\u00a0 Let\u2019s imagine that the average low-cost insurance plan today costs X.\u00a0 It may seem reasonable under present circumstances <\/em>to ask private insurers to develop plans that cost 0.8X.\u00a0 Yet present circumstances will change under the new regime, in ways that no one presently can understand in full.\u00a0 The free market of private insurers might <\/em>be able to do it (look at some promising new approaches here<\/a>).\u00a0 But they might not, through no fault of their own.<\/p>\n Essentially: the absence of a government option does not a free market make, and absent a truly free market it may prove impossible for private insurers to offer plans at sufficiently low rates.\u00a0 Thus this would not constitute a true \u201ctest\u201d of whether the free market is sufficient when it comes to health care, because the market will remain unfree even if the government option is removed.\u00a0 Also, if one is concerned about the government gaming the system in order to institute a government plan, it is not sufficient to agree upon a target rate and establish a non-partisan arbiter to determine whether the target has been met.\u00a0 This is because the government, by altering a single regulation or requirement or mandate, can force insurance companies over the target.\u00a0 It is partly a question of good faith, then, and neither party presently is inclined to trust in the good faith of the other.<\/p>\n If the signals coming out of the White House are confusing, perhaps it\u2019s because they\u2019re confused<\/a>.\u00a0 Ezra Klein reports on divisions within the White House on where to go with health-care reform.<\/p>\n 3.\u00a0 Regular readers of this blog will know that I have mixed feelings regarding Sarah Palin, but that I cannot stand the way in which the mainstream media has abandoned all journalistic standards in its quest to mock and vilify her.\u00a0 Now comes another hit piece from Vanity Fair, excerpts of which can be found here<\/a>.\u00a0 The piece is based entirely on the say-so of Levi Johnston, formerly the boyfriend of Bristol Palin, Sarah\u2019s eldest daughter.\u00a0 Since when have daughter\u2019s ex-boyfriends become reliable sources?\u00a0 Yet no attempt is made to verify Johnston\u2019s claims, nor even to compare the present claims with previous ones (which they blatantly contradict).<\/p>\n 4.\u00a0 By far the best reporter on the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts has not been employed by any of the major news organizations.\u00a0 He is rather a citizen-reporter, funded by those who contribute through his website because they value what he offers.\u00a0 His name is Michael Yon<\/a>, and if you have never read his material, you are in for a treat.\u00a0 Ed Morrisey of Hot Air interviews Michael Yon by phone, and it\u2019s worth hearing.\u00a0 Check it out<\/a>.<\/p>\n 5.\u00a0 In the midst of this contentious health-care reform debate, surely many on one side have given the finger to many on the other.\u00a0 This is the only case of which I know, however, in which a man on one side took the finger<\/a> <\/em>of a man on the other side.\u00a0 At a MoveOn.org rally, a supporter of Obama\u2019s proposed reforms was \u201cwalking through\u201d (just walking through?) the anti-reform group when an \u201caltercation\u201d began.\u00a0 Who knows how the fight started, or who was at fault; probably both.\u00a0 What we do know is that the pro-Obamacare fellow bit off the little finger of a 65 year old man who was protesting against Obama\u2019s reform.\u00a0 The older man picked up his finger and walked to a nearby hospital for treatment.<\/p>\n 6.\u00a0 Just as liberals feared that Bush would turn the country into a theocratic totalitarianism, conservatives fear<\/a> that Obama will turn the country into a fascist totalitarian state.\u00a0 Let me just say: not likely.\u00a0 Sigh.<\/p>\n 7.\u00a0 A vile commercial<\/a>, exploiting the 9\/11 tragedy, for a pro-environment group.\u00a0 It\u2019s safe for work; it\u2019s just morally obtuse and in unbelievably bad taste.<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=X1mFoTQNivc&feature=player_embedded<\/a>\n I\u2019m not opposed to showing the planes crashing into the towers (this is an animation, obviously), if the purpose is to remind Americans of the men, women and children who were slain on that day.\u00a0 I do mind if it is cynically exploited, not to mention minimized, for other purposes, even if those purposes in themselves are worthwhile.\u00a0 Also, what happened on 9\/11 was not a \u201ctragedy\u201d on a par with environmental disasters.\u00a0 Speaking of it as a tragedy or disaster removes the agency involved.\u00a0 It was a murderous act, an attack\u2013and, like the killing of Archduke Ferdinand, its detrimental consequences cannot be measured, much less compared to natural disasters, in terms of the number of lives lost.<\/p>\n 8.\u00a0 Tim Pawlenty clearly<\/a> intends to run for the Republican nomination for President.\u00a0 Yet does he have the charisma and the keen intelligence that will be required to defeat Obama.\u00a0 Call me skeptical.<\/p>\n 9.\u00a0 Nine out of ten <\/a>Americans say the country is still in a recession.\u00a0 Why is this news?\u00a0 Got me.<\/p>\n 10.\u00a0 Apparently<\/a> Japan\u2019s rising First Lady was abducted by aliens and taken to Venus.\u00a0 Some might see this as a negative, but I say good for her.\u00a0 We could use a little interplanetary perspective right now.\u00a0 And why couldn\u2019t the aliens have taken her to Uranus?\u00a0 The jokes would practically write themselves.\u00a0 She also claims to have met a previous incarnation of Tom Cruise in a previous life.\u00a0 I wonder if his thetan count, or midichlorian count or whatever it is, was as high back then as it is now.\u00a0 Anyway, we can all rejoice that we will have a more entertaining First Lady of Japan than we have in quite some time.<\/p>\n 11.\u00a0 International rumblings.\u00a0 Remember, Obama\u2019s deadline <\/a>for Iran\u2019s response to his overtures is in a few days.\u00a0 And the V-word is, inevitably, spoken: Afghanistan, says one author, is looking like Vietnam<\/a>.\u00a0 For a countervailing opinion, two highly respected Washington journalists explain<\/a> why Afghanistan is not <\/em>Vietnam.<\/p>\n 12.\u00a0 Column of the Day: the award goes to Michael Barone<\/a>, who explains that the \u201cfacts on the ground\u201d with regard to immigration, and underlying the immigration reform debate, have changed.\u00a0 The most salient fact to change: there is no longer a flood of immigrants.\u00a0 Barone gets the prize for turning out attention to a new topic (anyone else feeling health-care burnout?) but also for reexamining old positions in light of new facts.<\/p>\n 13.\u00a0 Today\u2019s Two-Sides comes from two major political players.\u00a0 Karl Rove<\/a>, writing (obviously) for the Right, contends that Obama is selling a more radical health-care reform than America really needs.\u00a0 Tom Daschle<\/a>, writing (obviously) from the Left, and (it should be noted) in the employ interested parties, provides a different perspective.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One Christian\u2019s perspective on the day\u2019s news. 1.\u00a0 BIGGEST NEWS ITEM OF THE DAY: Happy Birthday to my beloved Joyce. 2.\u00a0 FORECASTING SNOWE.\u00a0 The health care reform saga takes another turn, or at least another trial balloon is being floated.\u00a0 Talk emerges from the White House that the Obama camp and Olympia Snowe, Republican of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[493,427,182,591,592,607,616,618,621,631,654,658,662,666,668,701,1341,746,750,754],"class_list":["post-595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-afghanistan","tag-environment-2","tag-extremism","tag-health-care","tag-health-care-reform","tag-immigration","tag-iran","tag-iraq","tag-japan","tag-karl-rove","tag-media","tag-michael-barone","tag-michael-yon","tag-midichlorian","tag-moveon-org","tag-public-option","tag-sarah-palin","tag-thetan","tag-tom-daschle","tag-trigger"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Picture](\"https:\/\/www.michaelyon-online.com\/images\/stories\/precisionvot\/2009-08-20-at-04-45-47a-730.jpg\")
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