Thoughts and Ideas

Two topics this week.

More thoughts on Health Care

Over the last few months I have written a number of posts concerning the universal health care proposals. My three main criticisms of these plans are:

1. The Universal insurance plans proposed continue the HMO style of health insurance. HMO style insurance encourages over use of medical services by separating us from the actual expense of health care.

2. These Universal HMO plans by Obama, Edwards and Clinton also discourage people from finding the least expensive doctor or treatment. We don’t pay the costs so we don’t bother finding this information

3. HMO style insurance over insures us and leads us to take less care of our health because they don’t face the financial repercussions.

Well, I came up with yet another criticism of these proposed moves towards government run health care systems like those that exist in Canada and Western Europe. To be fair, none of the Universal Insurance plans Democrats have proposed would cause side effects of the size I’m talking about. However, all three have mentioned the “excessive profits” that drug companies are making and their party has been pushing to confiscate these profits or mandate lower prices by law. These moves could easily cause the effects that I fear.

According to the Kenneth Shadlen of Development Studies Institute, between 1996 and 2000 the United States accounted for 63% of all medical patents worldwide even though we make up only 5% of the population. Even when you compare the U.S. to Western Europe we blow them away. On a per capita basis, the U.S. puts out 2 to 2 ½ times the medical advances of the UK, France, Canada, and Germany. Clearly, our medical system, based on profits, outperforms the European countries with socialized medicine. The rest of the world is relying on our free market system because we choose not to exclude them from new medicines and technologies.

All else being equal, if the United States were to switch to a similar system for medicine as the four mentioned, worldwide medical advances would fall by almost 40%. Instead of finding cures and treatments for say 500,000 people next year, it would only be 300,000. That treatment you were hoping for that was only 10 years off could be 18 years off. How much needless suffering and pain would we inflict upon the world if we were to do as others have chosen to do?

Before we barrel down the road towards socialized medicine, we need to appreciate what could be the catastrophic consequences.

It’s a Nice Idea, But It Can’t be Done

Recently, in this newsletter, on my blog, and other blogs I have been defending the idea of Texas dropping the property tax for a sales tax in the spirit of the Fair Tax. I’ve come across general support, but also some doubt that it could ever be accomplished. I'm told that like the flat tax, fair tax, and many of the ideas that I have proposed, these changes are too ambitious to ever occur. I have run across some evidence that these doubt are unfounded.

The state of Utah recently switched from a complicated income tax with lots of loopholes and deductions to a Flat Tax. Read about it here:

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_7766094

The governor of the state of South Carolina recently proposed a budget that includes a flat tax option where citizens can choose whether to pay their state income tax under the existing system of deductions and loopholes or pay a flat tax.

“Under the plan, residents could choose to pay a flat 3.4 percent income tax rate. In exchange, they could claim no tax deductions or credits.”

http://www.thestate.com/local/story/262697.html

When the winds are blowing against the ideas of the free market and small government, it seems like an impossible task to significantly reduce the size of our government. Over the last 20 years, Ireland has shown that it can be done.

In 1985, government spending accounted for 54% of the Irish economy. The Irish made a choice to reduce the size of government and they did. Over the last twenty years, the Irish have cut government spending by 35% as a percentage of GDP. Their country now has a lower overall tax rate than the United States. They have moved from one of the poorest countries in Western Europe to one of the wealthiest. The Heritage Foundation lists them as having a more free economy than the United States. In 1985, the average Irish family made 40% less than their French and German counterparts. Today, because of the massive spending cuts and massive growth from that, the Irish make 40% more than the French and the Germans according to the IMF.

Do you think that we can move to less government in the United States? Tell me yes or no. Tell me what you think is the easiest government spending to get rid of. Send me an e-mail or go out to my blog.

As always, tell me what you think and pass this newsletter along to anyone who might be interested.