Public Option Support Surging In Senate

Public Health Care Option in the Senate?  Hmm...you know we've looked at this before, but it still astounds me that we fail to heed the lessons learned.  Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., Director of Domestic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation, published a set of lessons learned regarding European government run healthcare back in 2001.  Some of his lessons learned are below.

Some Lessons: For Members of Congress and state legislators, there are some valuable lessons from the European experience:

• If you insist on government management of the health care system, do not expect freedom from waste, inefficiency, or inequity in the delivery of care (look at France).
• If you want to promise citizens a national or state program of universal insurance coverage, don't expect that you will be able to deliver universal access to high-quality health care. You won't and you can't (look at Britain).
• If you want to fix prices for medical services, prescription drugs, or other medical devices, don't expect demand for these goods and services to be met or investment in research and development to continue apace. It won't (look anywhere).
• If you insist, with a straight face, that in a government-run health care system, all of your fellow citizens will be treated equally--regardless of their class, station in life, or disease condition--you are not merely enthusiastic or well intentioned. You are lying.

If you haven't figured it out, health care policy is complex and difficult.  We'll fix one problem only to find we create an even bigger problem.  Why isn't anybody talking about limiting the size of mal-practice awards?  Why aren't we focusing on removing inefficiency in health care administration?  Why aren't we looking towards the more successful health care plans in the United States, such as with our military, veterans and members of Congress.

Man I wish we would spend more time talking about this instead of politicizing health care.


More Research from the Heritage Foundation:
Would Europe's health-care-for-all model work here?
Fiscal Policy Lessons from Europe

Other Health Care Resources:
President Obama's Health Care Plan
NPR's List of Health Care Stories
Health Care Stories from change.org