Saturday, January 5, 2008

The Sorry History of Mandatory Coverage 

By Greg Scandlen

Filed As:  Health Care

I rarely agree with David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhndler, the husband and wife team of Marxist doctors from Boston who run Physicians for  a National Health Plan. So it was something of a shock to read an op-ed they had in the New York Times, and discover that I agreed with every word, except two concluding paragraphs.

They look at the history of mandatory insurance coverage at both the state and federal levels, beginning with President Nixon’s pay-or-play proposal in the early 1970s. They then discuss the Massachusetts effort in 1988, Oregon’s in 1989, and similar laws in Minnesota, Tennessee, Washington, and Vermont in 1992-1993. In every case the laws are enacted with grandiose promises but end up making the conditions worse than before or are repealed or overturned in court before they van even be implemented. The article quotes Oregon Governor Barbara Roberts as saying at the time, “Our dream of providing effective and affordable health care to all Oregonians have come true.” Tennessee’s Governor Ned McWherter announced, “Tennessee will cover at least 95 percent of its citizens.” This should be mandatory reading for every advocate of mandatory coverage.

Himmelstein and Woolhandler’s preferred solution, of course, is Single Payer National Health Insurance. They ignore that such a system would make all the existing problems in health care financing much worse. And they seem to have blind faith that the same politicians who made a hash of earlier efforts will miraculously transform into enlightened leaders once they control the entire health care system. No, no, no. Far better to put your faith in “the people” than in the politicians. Let the people control the money and get out of the way.

• posted by Greg Scandlen
• 9:57 am
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