The Heritage Foundation’s blog The Foundry recently wrapped up an article in the New England Journal of Medicine by Sherry Glied, Ph.D. who has just been nominated to serve as the Assistant Secretary of Planning and Evaluation at the Department of Health and Human Services.
The article can be found here. See The Foundry for extended comments.
– The freeloader justification is weaker than imagined.
– Without a mandate, healthy, low-income people (think young people looking for change) will continue to spend their money on things they really want rather than on what the federal government tells them.
– Without a mandate, the score from the Congressional Budget Office will be disastrous because it would show that the federal government would be spending a lot of money to subsidize those who have already decided they don’t need unless they are sufficiently “bribed” or are currently already paying for their own health insurance with only a small reduction in the number of uninsured.
– With a mandate, the federal government and special interests will be able to hide what they have colluded to do to the citizens.
– With a mandate, government will need to expand its surveillance powers to make certain private citizens are not cheating their government, which is there to help them.
– A mandate may not really be a mandate, thereby tricking the health plan lobbyists.
– Congress will soon be tearing itself apart over a symbol.
Tags: Dr. Glied, mandates, The Foundry
