Contradictions in the Bush administration’s health policy

Health Policy Malpractice by Paul Krugman is a must read article--- especially since the mid-term elections are right around the corner --- approx. 2 months away.

The article, a NY Times op-ed, describes the contraction in the health policy of the Bush administration:

On the one hand, the administration has limited access to the Veterans Health Administration, which provides “high-quality health care at remarkably low cost”, to only poor vets or those with injuries sustained during service (in other words, those fortunate enough to have escaped permanent injuries during service and are not considered poor won’t have access to the VA facilities). First of all, it’s a crying shame we don’t ALL have high-quality, low cost health service. Just imagine-- low cost, high quality UNIVERSAL health care (gasp!). Unfortunately, since this is won’t happen anytime soon (though we are still hopeful), the least we can do is provide high quality, low cost health care for the brave men and women who risked their lives at one point of another for this Country. However, this is not a priority, despite this resulting in cost savings.

What is a priority is pushing for and promoting the Medicare Advantage program since 2003, which (coincidentally) provides enormous subsidies to the HMO’s ---resulting in an increased government cost of 11% more per person than Medicare.

And the conservatives keep claiming the need to cut excessive spending and want to cut back on Medicare/Medicaid?

Read more about this contradiction in Paul Krugman’s op-ed.