Unequal Treatment of Equals
This is what happens in the health insurance exchange under the Baucus bill:
- If the family lives in the high-cost Bronx, Chicago, Baton Rouge, Detroit, or Las Vegas, they will get a government subsidy of $6,365 to buy health insurance.
- A family with the same income living in average-cost St. Louis, Reno, or Delaware will get a government subsidy of $4,792. That’s 25% less than the Bronx or Chicago family.
- A family with the same income living in low-cost Little Rock, Indianapolis, Portland, or Nebraska, will get a government subsidy of $3,220. That’s 49% less than the Baton Rouge or Detroit family.
Full article at Keith Hennessey’s blog.
That doesn’t make much sense. A family living in Detroit gets twice the subsidy as a family living in Portland? In Detroit, housing costs are low because of an over supply of houses; whereas families living in Portland either spend half their income on housing or commute from neighboring Washington State.
Moreover, the reason medical costs are high in Detroit likely has to do with the generous health benefits paid by automakers. The generous subsidies will only exacerbate the problem.
This is a huge mistake. It codifies differences in health care spending that are not justified. In so doing it rewards waste and inefficiency — the very type of waste and inefficiency that administration says it wants to get rid of.
And this is called health reform?
Nice post ….
Nice post ….
Spanish translations