Our Health Policy Matters

As Congress lurches today toward what at best will be another short-term “solution” to the debt ceiling and government shutdown debacle, there is a reason to believe that it will never effectively tackle entitlements.  What we need and what we want are two different things.  And this inept Congress – which in the eleventh hour of its most recent manufactured crisis is still posturing over Obamacare – has no idea how to balance the two.  Source: US House Website We need our entitlements – that’s why they exist.  But we also don’t want to pay for them. Take the Affordable Care Act – in the crosshairs of so many politicians – as an example.  Next to no one wants it all repealed.  Coverage for pre-existing conditions, a guarantee that insurance won’t be cancelled even after an illness hits, and tax credits to lower the cost of health insurance are all needed and immensely popular. But these things cost money.  When Congress passed the ...

As Congress lurches today toward what at best will be another short-term “solution” to the debt ceiling and government shutdown debacle, there is a reason to believe that it will never effectively tackle entitlements.  What we need and what we want are two different things.  And this inept Congress – which in the eleventh hour of its most recent manufactured crisis is still posturing over Obamacare – has no idea how to balance the two.  Source: US House Website We need our entitlements – that’s why they exist.  But we also don’t want to pay for them. Take the Affordable Care Act – in the crosshairs of so many politicians – as an example.  Next to no one wants it all repealed.  Coverage for pre-existing conditions, a guarantee that insurance won’t be cancelled even after an illness hits, and tax credits to lower the cost of health insurance are all needed and immensely popular. But these things cost money.  When Congress passed the ...