On one hand are Obama’s 15 numinous know-it-alls, charged with setting prices, rationing care, and finding just the right balance between quality and access from Washington, and without the power to change Medicare’s payment system. And on the other hand is a system that seeks efficiency by having 50 million consumers in search of the quality they want at the lowest price they can find pressuring 15 million insurance and health care providers to find innovative ways to meet their demands and make a good living. One involves sheer faith in expert managers, and the other involves using real economics to lift the burden of the oppressive fee-for-service system and enable a new era of innovation, efficiency, and quality in American health care. It is hard to imagine a clearer contrast for voters than that between the two visions of government, and of American life, at the heart of these two proposals—and indeed, at the heart of these two budgets.
Of course it goes without saying that this budget will not be passed by the Senate (besides they aren't concerned with passing budgets of any kind anyway). Ryan's budget does some of the heavy lifting for the Republican hopefuls, and I hope that they take full advantage of the opportunity.
But even more than that, Levin really gets at something that is a fundamental contrast: do we have faith in the experts who run the vast bureaucracies or do we have faith in the reason and common sense exhibited by the American people?
No comments:
Post a Comment