Frank, the realization that no panacea exists when dealing with human behavior and human decisions, lie at the heart of the difference between Democrats and Republicans over health care.
Many Democrats believe if we could just design a pretty enough model, and plan everything really well, we could solve the health care problem. Blind arrogant ignorance, drives people like Al Gore into the arms of Hillary Clinton and these master planners. If history has taught us anything, it's that governments always get humbled by the instruments of individual choice, as well as the unknown causal and non-causal feedback loops.
"All models are wrong, some models show important relationships". Is as true today, as it was 30 years ago when Forrester struggled with modeling whole societies.
One of the reasons we have such a difficult time getting closer to dealing with health care, is the fact that government is so much involved with the system. Cost in health care closely approximated the inflation rate until the government got deeply involved in the mid 60's.
Where should we start....Seems to me, TORT reform better be high on the list, along with giving people and employers larger tax breaks when they provide insurance for their employees. There are ways we can encourage people (especially with children) to obtain insurance. But it will never be a full proof perfect system.
In the next 30 years, the countries which jumped head-long into complete national health care systems (such as the one Gore and Hillary proposed) will be shown how poorly governments can model complex systems such as these. The quality will decline, and the costs will soar. The writing is already on the wall.
Why would we want America to follow them down that wrong road?
Michael |
