The Market is Almost Always a Better Solution

From a post of a FB friend

I find this absolutely infuriating. 

"Of course they’re going to say if we stop forcing people to buy something they don’t want to buy they’re not going to buy it," Ryan said. "That’s why you have these uninsured numbers, which we all expected." 

No. Just no. The drop in coverage is not because people are no longer "forced" to buy health insurance. Yes, there are some, but a much larger reason you are conveniently ignoring is because they can't afford it under your dumb plan! Millions of people are covered under the Medicaid expansion who would no longer be covered, just for a start.

My comment was "The market is almost always a better solution"

From 'No, Capitalism Will Not “Starve Humanity”' by 2050, Human Progress 17 Feb 2015, by Chelsea German and Marian L. Tupy

Capitalism has proven results. You just have to be willing to let it.

The USA is the most generous country in the world. There are real needs that need to be addressed. There is much suffering and sorrow. We must do more. Economic freedom allows the best path to give more.

From "Which Governments Are The Most Generous, Charitable? [CHART]", International Business Times, 22 Nov 2013, By Lisa Mahapatra

I also want to say that there are cases of extreme greed in capitalism. I think that is one of the ways that humans "grind the faces of the poor" (Isaiah 3:15)

In addition, providing money or benefits to people without requiring work lowers the sights of the receivers. There is only one way out of poverty.




So many good graphs and charts here.
"Why Single-Payer Health Care Delivers Poor Quality at High Cost" Foundation for Economic Freedom, 18 Mar 2017.


From a FB post by American Enterprise Institute. I can easily put all items that have increased in cost into the "caused by government intervention" category except for Food and Beverage and Child Care

Nearly Half of Everything They Earn

"One thing is clear: The Founding Fathers never intended a nation where citizens would pay nearly half of everything they earn to the government." - Ron Paul

Marriage and Family Ideals

The best environment for a child is the one where he is raised by his biological mother and father who are joined together in marriage. 

When a couple adopts, they give the best alternative to an already broken household where a child can't be raised by his biological parents. When a couple with an infertile man goes to a sperm bank, they create a broken household because they are, by design, taking a child away from his biological father. 

Adoption endeavors to fix brokenness. Sperm donation creates it. 

-Hans Fiene

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Why the ObamaCare Replacement Act, S. 222 is better than ObamaCare

I posted "Support the ObamaCare Replacement Act, S. 222" on FB. One of my FB friends asked me, why I thought it was better than ObamaCare.

Here was my response:

I believe that allowing a marketplace is the best option for all people. One thing Rand mentions in this video is changing the part of Obamacare that does not allow inexpensive plans . It also does not allow large contributions to HSA accounts.

https://youtu.be/QUXAwFfXpTg?t=1m36s

Here are some changes that did not exist before Obamacare.

1 - Allowing insurance to be sold across state lines will increase competition.
2 - Making it easier to allow individuals to associate and buy insurance as a group. Insurance was connected as an employer benefit to get around salary and wage restrictions the government created around WWII. As we break this association, more individuals will be able to get insurance. Insuring as a group will reduce the risk of insurers.
3 - Allowing much larger contributions to HSAs will allow the selling of plans with much larger deductibles. If you have $5,000 in an HSA, then you can afford a plan with at least a $5,000 deductible. As more people do this, there becomes a market force on the costs of health care providers. Consumers will know the true cost of their care and will be able to shop for what they need.

Some other details from the plan. ("Rand Paul pushes GOP to act on Obamacare by unveiling a replacement plan", CNN, 25 Jan 2017, YouTube)
- "tax credit of up to $5,000 per person to use toward the establishment of a Health Savings Account"

Details from Rand Paul
- Allow individuals to exclude their premiums just like those who get their insurance from their employers
- "Removes the maximum allowable annual contribution, so that individuals may make
unlimited contributions to an HSA."

UPDATE 2017-05-10

Rand does not particularly like the bill passed by the house.
"Rand Paul seems to lean “no” on the health care bill unless these major changes happen", Rare.us, 5 May 2017

A big part of our existing system began around WWII when the government set a price limit on wages. Employers got around it by giving employees health care benefits. I think making it easier to have health savings accounts is a way out of that. It will connect the patient with the actual costs of the health care they are using. ("The History of U.S. Employer-Provided Health Insurance - Post-World War II", zanebenefits.com, 4 Jun 2014)

Questions that truly reveal someone’s personality and capabilities

"Questions that truly reveal someone’s personality and capabilities", The Coffeelicious