Howard Dean gets conservative
Caught part of Howard Dean's appearance at Johns Hopkins' Milton S. Eisenhower Symposium last week -- via CSPAN. He had a proposal for expanding U.S. health care coverage that I had never heard before and that sounded relatively responsible and doable. The plan has two steps: 1) Expand Medicaid coverage (currently for low-income folks of all ages) to include all uninsured people under 30 -- regardless of income. 2) Expand Medicare (currently for those over 65) to include all uninsured people over 55.
It bears several hallmarks of constructive conservatism. It doesn't reinvent the wheel. It doesn't tear up exisiting institutions and ways of behaving. It leaves private insurance companies intact -- they would continue to serve people through employer-provided insurance. It plumbs new policy depths not by diving in but by sticking in toes and feet and legs. It's not as fiscally risky as other plans; because people under 30 rarely get sick, making them eligible for Medicaid would be quite affordable. It builds on existing structures and lays ground for more change later on, which can also be said of Dr. Peter Beilenson's plan to expand Howard County health coverage.
Of course, the other virtue is that the plan is politically realistic, which is presumably what Dean likes most about it. When he ran for president his health-care plan was also incremental, but not as much as this.
Comments
Yes, doable if you're into nationalized health care. Expand these two programs and the next natural step in the mind of "progressives" - read tax and spend and government is the end all and be all to everyone, let's bow to the government - is to, of course, include those who are in the 30-55 year old range because why should they be excluded just because of their age. NO nationalized health care!
Posted by: Mar | October 16, 2007 1:49 PM
Actually, Dean's suggestion to expand Medicaid coverage to include all uninsured people under 30 isn't a new idea of his although contrary to the above comment, it's not nationalized health care.
During his presidential campaign, adn even before he officially declared, Dean proposed expanding Medicaid to children and young adults under the age of 23, and adding a prescription drug benefit for the elderly within Medicare. His experience as governor of Vermont really informed his policy positions.
Posted by: Corinne | October 16, 2007 8:16 PM
Of course. Expand an existing programs that has a great track record.
Howard Dean: still truckin'
However, it will be opposed by the GOP, by "conservatives": it's not about health care, it's about business, about the free market model
1) the free market does everything better
2) anything not free market is bad and will not be permitted.
Posted by: gerald berke | October 18, 2007 9:30 PM
Dean's vision of health care is realistic and practical. Unfortunately it seems like variations on Edwards plan is what we'll get. An even more gradualist approach than Dean's with a greater potential for abuse.
But either form of health care will be more conservative, if by conservative we mean saving people lots of money.
Posted by: Buzzcook | October 22, 2007 7:41 PM