Sunday, March 25, 2012
Sunday Question for Conservatives
Suppose that SCOTUS actually tosses out ACA -- not just the mandate, but the entire law (it's extremely unlikely, but just suppose). And further suppose that Republicans capture the White House and the Senate this November. Four years from now, what have Republicans passed if anything to replace ACA? How does the issue play for Republicans in the 2016 elections?
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Nothing, and not for the tried-and-true "Republicans are closet nihilists" meme. I think Republicans have been backed into a corner on health care.
ReplyDeleteThe standard right-wing answer on HC (which I've probably advocated here once or twice) is something like Nixon's high-deductible catastrophic plan, which is supposed to work by bringing price transparency into the HC market.
The classic illustration of how price transparency contains cost is lasik, which used to be covered, then wasn't, at which point price-sensitive consumers drove down the cost of the procedure. However, lasik has a fairly elastic demand curve; you won't undergo the procedure if its too expensive. By contrast, a diagnosis of a significant, life-threatening condition carries a near-perfect inelastic demand curve - the consumer opts for the treatment, no matter the cost.
Long-winded way of saying that price transparency, the standard conservative 'solution' in health care, probably wouldn't accomplish a whole lot in bringing down costs. Not bringing down costs = inviting further ire from the Tea Party hordes.
Thus, the Republicans do nothing.
Healthcare is something the right avoids talking about other then attacking Obamacare. If the events in question came about the only things the GOP could agree on is reducing medical liability, selling insurance across state lines and making insurance deductible for individuals.
ReplyDeleteMost conservatives would disagree but I think the GOP would be in better shape if the law stands because rising medical costs are a big problem that the most conservatives could not agree how to stop other then blame doctors.
The last sentence of my post should have said blame lawyers.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.hoover.org/publications/hoover-digest/article/7298
ReplyDeletemarkets are good