January, 2007

The President’s Plan

by Arnold Kling

January 23rd, 2007

With the President having proposed a new health care plan in his State of the Union Address, this might be an occasion to comment. The plan is to recognize employer-provided health insurance premiums as taxable income, while creating a standard deduction that everyone with health insurance can use. Because the deduction is limited [...]

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Not Politically Realistic

by Arnold Kling

January 19th, 2007

Cohn writes, “But if [Kling]’s going to dismiss single-payer as politically unrealistic, then I have to ask him: Does he think his vision politically realistic?”
No. I wrote here:
I should start by saying that the book does not contain a single major policy recommendation that is politically palatable today… Maybe some years down the [...]

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Postscript . . .

by Jonathan Cohn

January 19th, 2007

Something just occurred to me. Kling attacks Holt and advocates of universal health insurance because under the schemes they recommend “the practice of medicine will be governed by elite technocrats, far removed from doctors and patients” — something Kling deems immoral and inefficient, as well as politically unacceptable.
Let’s suppose Kling is right. Fine. Now, under [...]

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In Search of the “Politically Realistic”

by Jonathan Cohn

January 19th, 2007

I was going to answer Kling’s original response — and still plan on doing so, shortly. But I just have to jump in and comment quickly on his reply to Holt. I’ll let Holt explain why the vision Kling paints of technocrats secretly cooking up medical guidelines is grossly misleading. Instead, I [...]

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