Austin Frakt advises:
[S]uppose like me you favor the following:
- Federalization of Medicaid,
- Elimination of the preferred tax treatment of employer provided health insurance,
- Severing of the link between employment and health insurance,
- Greater transparency and uniformity of health care prices,
- Less provision of unnecessary care.
None of these will occur with the passage of health reform legislation this year. But all are far more likely to occur in the future if health reform does pass and far less likely if it does not...That’s why I believe it is intellectually consistent to both find the provisions in health reform legislation lacking and still think them worthwhile to implement.
There are many, many aspects of this bill that can be reformed and added to in the coming years - the health insurance exchanges, the cost control pilots schemes, etc. Throwing the whole baby out with the bathwater is madness.