Is the British right now turning to the American left for bad ideas? Recently John Edwards discussed how his health care plan would make preventative care mandatory. In Great Britain the Torys are proposing that the National Health Service penalize those who engage in unhealthy life styles.
Under this plan, the NHS will decide if everyone’s been naughty or nice. Those who have been naughty might be denied certain health care services or be penalized. In contrast, good behavior, such as losing weight or giving up smoking, will receive a NHS Health Miles Card which will provide benefits such as discounts. There is even some grumbling that those who are not overweight and do not smoke do not have the same potential for such rewards.
Conservative bloggers are rightfully appalled by this idea. Not surprisingly, some also try to draw comparisons with the health plans proposed by the Democratic candidates. Last week I would have said this is absurd because (with the exception of Kucinich) the Democratic health plans rely on continuation of private health plans. John Edwards certainly changed that, but I also believe that one consequence of Edwards’ statement on mandatory care will be to prevent any form of single payer system from being adopted in this country for quite a long time.
By including such requirements in his plan, Edwards also shows that his plan will place more control over health care and the types of insurances that are offered than many other Democrats support. As Hillary Clinton has avoided providing any details on her current plan, there is also legitimate cause for concern, especially concerning what she came up with previously. At present the smaller plans offered by Barack Obama and Bill Richardson are looking much better.
Q and O calls this a risk of government run health care plans, but that is an oversimplification. In the United States, many insurance plans currently do have measures to penalize bad behaviior and offer rewards for good behavior. Some of the plans I deal with currently have such provisions. To my dismay, even the plan I use to insure my employees recently went to a two-tier premium system where both the amounts I pay and the employee contribution are higher for those who do not participate in wellness programs. At least they do not deny care for those who refuse to participate in their programs.
To some degree what we are seeing is John Edwards and the British Tories adopting ideas from the private sector for their government plans–something that in other situations conservatives might support. The difference is that such intrusion in individual’s lives is a far more serious matter when conducted on a nation-wide basis as opposed to by individual insurance companies. As long as each insurance company is making their own policies, individuals have the opportunity to shop around, and market forces might result in reduced business for those which become overly restrictive.
Back in 2003-4 I supported John Kerry’s more voluntary health care plan both because it was a good idea and because I feared that unless there was a solution offered to the health care crisis future plans would be more intrusive, as Hillary Care was. Those fears appear to have been justified, especially in light of the vast difference between Edwards’ plans of 2003 and 2007, along with a growing number of people pushing for even bigger government-run programs.
