Tag Archives: healthcare legislation

Reading the Concord Colition’s 15 page assessment of health care reform provides a sound sense of the questions I would like to ask. http://www.concordcoalition.org/files/uploaded-pdfs/1223FinalHealthCarebrief.pdf
1. Does it matter that people who fund the program will not benefit? During the 1930s, when Social Security was passed, its originators believed it would achieve success only if those paying for it received its benefits. They did not want a poverty program.
2. Which incentives are being created? I wonder whether, for consumers, there is an incentive to consume more and, for physicians, a disincentive to provide more.
3. Will taxes on the affluent increase revenue and will economic growth be affected? (you might look at: http://seekingalpha.com/article/78256-lying-with-charts-wsj-edition) Certain economists have tried to prove that even when tax rates change, tax revenue remains a relatively consistent proportion of GDP (18%).
4. And finally, as suggested by Arnold Kling during a December 18 Bloomberg/Tom Keene interview, can those with power know enough to design appropriate legislation for so many diverse people?