Tuesday, February 11, 2014

a moment of clarity.

an ongoing discussion.

words.

"In other advanced industrial democracies, especially in Europe, health insurance, pensions and even certain amounts of income support for working-age adults are considered rights, to which everyone is entitled by virtue of their membership in society and their shared vulnerability to life’s vicissitudes.

In the United States, by contrast, there is more emphasis on the duty of the “able-bodied” to provide for themselves and on the idea that government benefits should be earned, or, at least, ultimately traceable to one’s work effort.

...Linking health insurance to work, however, is a bad idea: There’s just no necessary connection between how much you work and your risk of needing care. Eventually, the United States must move from a categorical approach to health insurance to a more universal one, whether through Obamacare or some less-convoluted plan.

That fact will remain long after this CBO kerfuffle is over, and Republicans are going to have to face it. We all are."

THE WASHINGTON POST: The U.S. insurance model doesn’t work

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