Jennifer: Sorry, but calling Giuliani's plan "Milton Friedman
Health Care" is almost as bad as calling Bill Richardson's tax plans "Art Laffer Economics."
First, with regard to the state mandates, nothing in the
Giuliani plan actually eliminates those mandates (and it is
doubtful the federal government could do much about them anyway
since they are state laws. It is also doubtful in could do much to
reform liability laws eithers, since those are also largerly state
matters, but that is another issue.) What Giulian's plan tries to
do is get the states to compete by letting people purchase out of
state. This would encourage states to reduce mandates and other
regulations, since consumers would go for the lower cost plans
which would be more likely to be found in the states with fewer
mandates and other regulations. But Giuliani's plan will barely
achieve any such competition. By allowing only residents in states
that do not have "affordable" insurance to purchase across state
lines, you will limit how much pressure states feel to deregulate.
My guess is that "affordable" will be defined so that only
residents in the worst-offender states like New Jersey and New York
will be able to buy insurance in another state. That's an expansion
of freedom only in the slightest sense.
It is also vital to note that Rudy's plan also goes in the
opposite direction, that of more government. Other planks
in Giuliani's plan are "Drive Quality and Price Transparency,"
"Invest In Health IT to Reduce Medical Errors, Improve Efficiency,
and Detect Health Threats," and "Infuse Incentives in Insurance
Markets That Promote Wellness and Better Outcomes for Chronic
Diseases." I doubt Friedman would want government to get involved
in many of those things. Government trying to "improve
efficiency"?! Given how well it runs the Post Office, you'd think
the Giuliani camp would have more sense than to put that in
there.
A few planks that offer a bit more freedom coupled with others
than expand governments role? I think it is a safe bet that
Friedman wouldn't want his name associated with such a plan.
I am also interested to see what the other GOP candidates come
up with on health care. And let me offer them this bit of advice:
you can do way better than Giuliani.
topics:
Health Care, Economics, Law
