Coming Soon!

Coming soon, from the people who brought you the highly successful war in Iraq, the outstanding management of the federal deficit, the Katrina disaster recovery and the hugely popular Social Security privatization plan, a bold new approach to the financing of medical care in America! Get ready for the action-packed sequel to the blockbuster Medicare Drug Plan: Health Savings Accounts!

Bush's supporters say that the changes would help tame rocketing medical costs by encouraging people to buy their own healthcare insurance and become smarter shoppers, rather than relying on employers or government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid to cover their health costs.

Critics argue that Bush's expected proposals would undermine the employer-provided health insurance system that covers most working Americans. And, they say, it would encourage them to switch to the Bush-authored Health Savings Accounts, established in 2003, under which they would bear more of the financial risks of illness and injury.

Just as with Bush's Social Security personal accounts proposal, the president would be seeking to persuade Americans to rely less on government-provided or employer-provided safety nets and more on themselves.

He would also exhibit the kind of combativeness that has become a trademark of his time in Washington. Despite the political drubbing that the administration sustained on Social Security and over the flawed rollout of its Medicare prescription drug benefit, Bush appears eager to return to the fray.

This is supposed to be one of the big policy initiatives in the upcoming State of the Union address. The Democratic Party is encouraging an effort to build grass-roots political awareness by having people host "State of the Union parties." As part of my "12th man" effort to support the Seahawks, I suggest you save the money for your Super Bowl party, skip the speech, and just read the two articles from the LA Times linked above. It'll do more for you.

Most conservatives — including those in the administration — believe that the root cause of most problems with the nation's healthcare system is that most Americans are over-insured.

They argue that insurance keeps people from feeling the sting of prices and therefore from being wise consumers. Hence, conservatives' interest in making individuals take more risk and bear more responsibility for healthcare, retirement savings and other social safety nets.

But a wide array of polls reveal that, if anything, people feel underinsured, and have little interest in adding to the financial risks they face.

"The average American isn't interested in having more of his or her skin in the game," said Robert D. Reischauer, president of the Urban Institute, a centrist Washington think tank. "They already think they are paying plenty for healthcare and bearing enough of the risk as it is."

Then ask yourself if you trust these guys to create a system that doesn't make people's lives worse.