The laissez-faire approach is usually seen as the optimal choice from markets ranging from oranges to iPods to automobiles, as robust competition usually yields better results at lower costs.<\/p>\n
Healthcare has unique differences from other markets which render a pure laissez-faire policy challenging at best.\u00a0 Put simply, it is difficult to square the laissez-faire philosophy of “if you don’t pay, you don’t receive” with the Christian ethos of the Good Samaritan<\/a>.\u00a0 For most people, compassion ultimately trumps capitalism, but the cost for the uninsured must inevitably be paid, and today that someone is either the taxpayer, the insurance holder, or the hospital, but *not* the person receiving the “free” healthcare.<\/p>\n Given the remaining policy options, the Republican party has historically supported<\/a> solutions based on the individual mandate (prior to its recent Damascas road conversion on the issue at least), and Democrats have supported<\/a> single-payer solutions. \u00a0 While the PPACA is admittedly a unwieldy amalgamation of policies, its core approach to the healthcare market uses the individual mandate.<\/p>\n As attempts to “repeal and replace” the PPACA appear increasingly unlikely to prevail, reshaping it at both the state and federal levels appears to be the most probable path towards refining the law.<\/p>\n 1.\u00a0 Do you support\/accept the base PPACA plan, or do you think Tennessee should request a “waiver for state innovation” to implement our own alternate healthcare reform plan (single-payer like Vermont, or perhaps a different form of individual mandate such as Health Savings Accounts plus catastrophic insurance)?\u00a0\u00a0 What do you believe leads to the best outcome for all Tennesseans?<\/p>\n 2. While mostly upholding Obamacare, the Supreme Court struck down the provision allowing the federal government to withhold all federal Medicaid funding towards states that failed to expand their Medicaid program in accordance with the PPACA.\u00a0 Several Republican states have subsequently promised to refuse additional federal funding to expand their state Medicaid program.\u00a0 What are your thoughts on this?<\/p>\n Outside those two questions, please feel free to explain your beliefs about healthcare at length.<\/p>\n Added:<\/p>\n I am including a graph of the percentage of Tennesseans covered by health insurance.\u00a0\u00a0 You can see that it has been trending down for over a decade.\u00a0 Given a state population of 6.4 million, the roughly 5.5% decrease in the coverage rate between 1999 and 2010 equates to approximately 350,000 Tennesseans who can either no longer get or no longer afford health insurance.\u00a0 This is equal to the combined population of Knoxville (180,761) and Chattanooga (170,136).<\/p>\n Previous posts on healthcare reform: After last month’s Supreme Court ruling, Obamacare (officially known as “The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act”) is now the law of the land.\u00a0\u00a0 Almost everyone sees it as merely the beginning of actual healthcare reform, not the end. \u00a0It … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.mathewbinkley.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/tennessee-population-covered-by-healthcare.png\" "\\"tennessee")
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