Kevin Drum’s translation of the new BushCo health plan proposal:
Current system (for those with insurance): When you get sick you go to the doctor. When your kids get sick, they go to the doctor. You don’t have to quibble over costs or spend time second guessing your doctor over whether a test he recommends is really necessary. As Bush himself says, it seems like a pretty good deal.
Now here’s what Bush is trying to sell: When you get sick, you should spend a lot of time shopping around for doctors to find one you can afford. You should put off tests that he recommends if they’re expensive. You should haggle over the cost of drugs as if you were buying a used car. And when you get home you should worry about whether you made the right decision or not.
Indeed. Of course, if you don’t have health insurance the whole issue is moot, and neither the current system nor the BushCo proposals are good ways of solving that particular problem. But given the existing setup, less worry = better.