If Confucius was an Harvard Econ Professor Blogger

Mankiw, ah snap.

Paging Dr. Hayek

Humana sends out a letter to its policyholders on possible effects of reform. And is threatened by the federal government from ever doing so again, under threat of fines and jail time.
Congress is considering putting explicit limits on health care executives pay, as a result of other "reforms" under consideration.
Hmm, there's definitely not a chance that health care reform as it's being debated will lead to the complete takeover of the system. It's just a lie to say something like that. Clearly the people who say and think that are simply racists, or idiots. Or both.

Right

Krugman says the point of a mandate to buy health insurance "isn’t to dictate how people should live their lives — it’s to prevent some people from gaming the system". Two points. One, so what? Even if the point is what he says it is, the mandate still does dictate to people how to live their lives. Two, I don't really believe him, as his recommendations always involve dictating how people should live their lives. At a certain point, you have to think that control is the point of his ideas, not any other (supposed) benefits.

Here is my understanding of the rationale for these mandates. A lot of people don't buy insurance, knowing that hospitals are required to treat anyone who shows up at the ER sick. So, to prevent them from gaming/cheating the system, we have to require everyone to buy insurance. Translation: we take away some people's freedom, so we have to take away other people's freedom as well. Paging Dr. Hayek, paging Dr. Hayek.

An Important Point

Don't compare quality of care by using cost. Terrible.

A Huge Surprise

Our government subsidizes the junk that makes us fat. Who would have thought that lobbyists could have led big government astray like this?

Health Care

Great post, great links. Please read it all.