Thursday, 6 November 2003 - 10:14 PM CST

It is a bit of an ethical problem ... and one of the nasty side effects of an open market economy.

So long as people can get just about as much health care as they need without having to write the checks directly, this will mean a disproportiate number of dollars will be chasing health care vs. say, soybeans.

It almost seems that health care should be an area taken out of the free market because way too much unethical stuff happens so long as it is part of the free market. For instance plain injected HDL might be quite effective in treating heart disease but no one will ever launch the studies because plain HDL cannot be patented.

Wednesday, 12 November 2003 - 3:00 AM CST

Raising taxes always seem to be the answer for every new idea the US wants to implement; however, I'm sure this program could have been rolled out successfully with the 87.5 billion loan-free buckaroos we handed over to Iraq and eliminating all the perks our wonderful elected officials receive (i.e. cars)...

Wednesday, 12 November 2003 - 3:00 PM CST

Thanks for your comment. I welcome them. I believe the way to find solutions to problems is to have calm, well-thought discussions of them.

Hasn't Canada taken health care out of the free market? Didn't the communist countries? Canada has high taxes as well as other problems and communism was ridden with inefficiencies. Is this what we want?

Wednesday, 12 November 2003 - 3:09 PM CST

Thanks for your comment. I enjoy reading them. I don't have all the answers and I'm not writing this because I think I do.

I certainly don't advocate new taxes. Most of the Democratic candidates don't explicitly advocate new taxes either. Most of the electorate thinks they are taxed enough. The disagreements come over where we should spend the money we _do_ pay in taxes. But where I differ with the Democrats is how much their plans are ultimately going to cost. Most want to repeal the Bush tax plan and "give" it back to us in other ways. Some only want to repeal the tax cuts for the "wealthiest" Americans. If you repeal a tax cut, it's raising taxes.