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EDITORIAL: A tipping point for health care?
If universal health care happens, business will lead the way.
WISCONSIN TURNED BACK the effort to include a form of universal health care in the state budgeting process, for a number of reasons.
First, the plan suddenly materialized in the Senate without proper introduction and hearings to allow the public and legislators to digest it all.
Second, sticker shock over the multi-billion dollar pricetag and tax increases doomed the plan.
Third, such major policy items do not belong as a mere add-on to the already complicated budget deliberations. Rather than press the issue as a hurry-up two-minute-drill, which bollixed up the budgeting process, the proposal deserved separate consideration to seek full attention and full participation by the public.
So the program crashed and burned. No surprise.
IF AMERICA ever is to embrace some form of universal health care, we would add this caveat: The impetus cannot seem to come from government.
Frankly, people just don't trust government that much.
We've said before, if the tipping point toward universal health care is reached, it will be the result of the private sector exhausting its patience with out-of-control costs. There are signs that point may be nearing.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports on recommendations reached by the Committee for Economic Development. That's a group which includes current and retired chief executives of large corporations, Wall Street investment bankers and other high-powered business leaders, along with key academic figures.
The committee believes the present system is fatally flawed and cannot be rescued. Members do not propose reform; they propose revolution. They believe the system of providing health insurance through employers should be scrapped, and replaced with universal coverage.
The details are complicated but the conclusion is not: Employers cannot sustain a system with uncontrollable costs, and it must be changed before it completely and irreversibly breaks down and torpedoes the economy.
THERE'S A CERTAIN ring of truth, on the face of it. Businesses exist to drive the economy by creating products and jobs, not to manage social service networks. Undoubtedly, as costs and uncertainties soar, more and more businesses would love to jettison the headaches of providing and managing employee health care programs.
Obviously, that would be a bad thing unless some better system already were in place. So this committee's conclusion should be perceived as a red flag, suggesting patience is running low among some major national employers. America's leaders and politicians - not necessarily the same people - should get serious about creative solutions before a growing parade of employers throws people overboard without a health care safety net.
The impetus for change, and the shape of that change, must come with the private sector as senior partner, and with government as facilitator - not designer, and certainly not dictator. Heavy-handed, government-generated programming won't work. It failed in Wisconsin, as it failed in the 1990s in Washington.
Has the tipping point been reached? Maybe. This business committee's recommendation has the sound of a call to action.
WISCONSIN TURNED BACK the effort to include a form of universal health care in the state budgeting process, for a number of reasons.
First, the plan suddenly materialized in the Senate without proper introduction and hearings to allow the public and legislators to digest it all.
Second, sticker shock over the multi-billion dollar pricetag and tax increases doomed the plan.
Third, such major policy items do not belong as a mere add-on to the already complicated budget deliberations. Rather than press the issue as a hurry-up two-minute-drill, which bollixed up the budgeting process, the proposal deserved separate consideration to seek full attention and full participation by the public.
So the program crashed and burned. No surprise.
IF AMERICA ever is to embrace some form of universal health care, we would add this caveat: The impetus cannot seem to come from government.
Frankly, people just don't trust government that much.
We've said before, if the tipping point toward universal health care is reached, it will be the result of the private sector exhausting its patience with out-of-control costs. There are signs that point may be nearing.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports on recommendations reached by the Committee for Economic Development. That's a group which includes current and retired chief executives of large corporations, Wall Street investment bankers and other high-powered business leaders, along with key academic figures.
The committee believes the present system is fatally flawed and cannot be rescued. Members do not propose reform; they propose revolution. They believe the system of providing health insurance through employers should be scrapped, and replaced with universal coverage.
The details are complicated but the conclusion is not: Employers cannot sustain a system with uncontrollable costs, and it must be changed before it completely and irreversibly breaks down and torpedoes the economy.
THERE'S A CERTAIN ring of truth, on the face of it. Businesses exist to drive the economy by creating products and jobs, not to manage social service networks. Undoubtedly, as costs and uncertainties soar, more and more businesses would love to jettison the headaches of providing and managing employee health care programs.
Obviously, that would be a bad thing unless some better system already were in place. So this committee's conclusion should be perceived as a red flag, suggesting patience is running low among some major national employers. America's leaders and politicians - not necessarily the same people - should get serious about creative solutions before a growing parade of employers throws people overboard without a health care safety net.
The impetus for change, and the shape of that change, must come with the private sector as senior partner, and with government as facilitator - not designer, and certainly not dictator. Heavy-handed, government-generated programming won't work. It failed in Wisconsin, as it failed in the 1990s in Washington.
Has the tipping point been reached? Maybe. This business committee's recommendation has the sound of a call to action.
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badgerpop wrote on Oct 25, 2007 8:10 AM: