A cure for cancer

Incentives!

The decision by Mr. Giuliani to address health care so early in the campaign season is a recognition of the resonance the issue has among voters.

Using explicitly partisan language, perhaps intended to stir memories of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s failed bid to reform health care as first lady more than a decade ago, Mr. Giuliani cited horror stories and selective statistics about health care in foreign countries that provide universal coverage. Mr. Giuliani said that a “socialist” model would bankrupt the government.

“That is where Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards are taking you,” he said. “You have got to see the trap. Otherwise we are in for a disaster. We are in for Canadian health care, French health care, British health care.”

But Mr. Giuliani’s speech offered very little in the way of specifics. He said his goal was to outline his “vision,” with more details to come in the fall.

In proposing a tax exemption of up to $15,000 for a family and $7,500 for individuals, Mr. Giuliani said that money could be used by consumers to buy an insurance policy of their liking. The money left over, he said, could be put into a “health savings account” to be used to pay for deductibles or other uncovered medical expenses.

Mr. Giuliani said the resulting flood of competition among insurers for customers would lead them to reduce the costs of their policies, estimating that only 20 million to 30 million of the 120 million who currently get their insurance through an employer would need to sign up for individual insurance plans for that to happen.

“You have to start bringing the price down before you can figure out how many people can you include,” he said at a news conference after the speech. “It can’t be done with a magic wand all at once.”

Mr. Giuliani said that it could take as long as four years for any of the proposals suggested by the Democrats to become reality and that his plan would begin to have an impact more rapidly.

Mr. Giuliani, who is not seeking any changes in the current Medicaid program for the poor, did not promise that all the uninsured would be covered under his proposal.

He was also not specific about a federal government role in helping the poor or lower middle class buy their own insurance, saying he envisioned some combination of vouchers and tax refunds.

The ideas he outlined, steeped in a bedrock conservative faith in the ability of the free, unfettered market to solve problems, are similar to those advocated by President Bush.

The president’s proposals have failed to gain traction and Mr. Giuliani did not try to address the central criticisms of moving away from an employer-based system.

For instance, he offered no assurances that insurance companies would not “cherry pick” by insuring only healthier people, or by charging much higher rates to more vulnerable people — like those with chronic diseases.

Instead, he said, moving to a market system would create incentives for people to remain healthy.

Currently, he said, “there is no incentive to wellness.”

This from a guy who had colon cancer, was given the best treatment available, and nursed back to health by Super Chick. I know the conservative ideology of unfailing devotion to the "free market (when it suits their clients' purposes)" but I did not know that ideology could trump genetic and environmental effects on people's health, not to mention economic factors. Learn something new each and every day.

And if you're thinking, "Heck, I saw Sicko and the French system looks pretty good," remember, the French don't speak English.

And Michael Moore is fat.

UPDATE: Of course, the indispensable Mr. Somerby unpacks teh stupid in Santora's article.