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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Frank Griffin who wrote (41844)	10/3/2000 9:35:19 AM
From: greenspirit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

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

To: Frank Griffin who wrote (41844)	10/3/2000 11:46:18 AM
From: phyxter	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

There are all sorts of wonderful folks who do forgo big bucks to practice in underserved communities. There was this story I read of a Hispanic girl in California, daughter of farm-workers I believe, who struggled to get into medical school, but could not afford the price - her avowed intent was to return to her home town and practice in her community. She fortunately, found a sponsor. However, with the passing of effective affirmative action, stories like hers will be far fewer. There are programs out there that will pay medical school expenses in return for a promise to spend a minimum amount of time in communities in need. I think it was 60 Minutes that ran an expose of some beneficiaries of the program who reneged on their promises - the government should do a better job holding them to their contracts. That was years ago, I do not know the status of such programs today. Yes, the people who opt out, for whatever reason, do create a problem for the system. A bad deal for everyone, as you say. And any reform of the system must take this into account, or is doomed o fail from the start.