23 Comments - Patriot - Wednesday, Jul 25, 07 @ 8:02 am: It is time for the governor to sign SB 1397, “Jessica’s Law.” - Squideshi - Wednesday, Jul 25, 07 @ 8:17 am: “Sometimes the advocates of socialized medicine claim that health care is too important to be left to the market.” Socialized medicine is not the same as nationalized health insurance. Williams needs to do a little more research before writing. “Or, would you like the people who deliver our mail to also deliver health-care services?” I think we have a pretty outstanding postal service; and it’s inexpensive too, considering that they provide guaranteed service even to the most remote areas of the country! “In the market, there are the ruthless forces of profit, loss and bankruptcy that make producers accountable to us. In the arena of government-delivered services, there’s no such accountability.” Williams is obviously living in some sort of market utopia, because he doesn’t seem to realize that there is a difference between theory and reality. In my opinion, gigantic for-profit insurance companies aren’t all that accountable. “For example, government schools can go for decades delivering low-quality services, and what’s the result? The people who manage it earn higher pay. It’s nearly impossible to fire the incompetents. And taxpayers, who support the service, are given higher tax bills.” This guy is really a government hater, isn’t he? He’s implying assumptions here for which he provides no evidence to back up. Public schools provide low-quality services? Management receives higher pay when they perform poorly? It’s nearly impossible to fire an incompetent employee? This is just more character assassination of government services, based in stereotype without any basis in objective research or facts. “Before we buy into single-payer health care systems like Canada’s and the United Kingdom’s, we might want to do a bit of research.” I agree. Here’s the research. “I have absolutely no problem with people wanting socialism. My problem is when they want to drag me into it.” This guy doesn’t even seem to know what socialism is. He’s just throwing around the term in order to invoke some sort of emotional response. - Bill - Wednesday, Jul 25, 07 @ 8:23 am: George Mason University is a PUBLIC University. That means that Williams,who gets free health care provided by the state, doesn’t mind having the taxpayers pay for HIS health insurance but he doesn’t want anybody else to get help with theirs. This view is similar to many legislators who enjoy a Cadillac state plan but who claim the state is too broke to provide minimal health protection to the less fortunate. Remember, IllinoisCovered in all of its proposed forms still would charge premiums based on ability to pay. It won’t be free like the legislators’ is.I am not sure why this editorial is in the SJR. No one in Illinois is proposing a single payer health plan. It is the role of the state in a capitalist society to control free enterprise through regulation to protect the public from the greed and unscrupulous behavior that so often occurs. 1.4 million and rising have no health insurance in Illinois. It is time for the legislature to act to alleviate these citizens misery. - Bill - Wednesday, Jul 25, 07 @ 8:32 am: Excuse me for being old fashioned but I would not want my health care professional or my child’s teacher to have received their “training” from the U of I’s “matchbook college”. Where is the money coming from? Is this what the Governor means when he refers to administrative bloat in higher ed.? There seems to be no shortage of dollars at the good ol’ U of I despite their atrocious undergraduate success rates. - Fan of the Game - Wednesday, Jul 25, 07 @ 8:35 am: The postal system is pretty reliable, but it is not inexpensive. What we pay at the window for postage is only a small portion of our bill. The rest comes in subsidies through taxes–the same as Amtrak, NPR, and PBS. As a Friedman capitalist, Professor Williams advocates the least amount of government possible–only that which the Constitution specifically mandates, which is very little. His ideas on the nature of the market are pretty sound. - Truthful James - Wednesday, Jul 25, 07 @ 8:42 am: Paul has extracted a limited paragraph regarding the Williams commentary. Bloggers should go back to the complete commentary to see the Williams logic. Regarding the schools, is there any doubt that their output has been of too low quality. We lag well behind the rmainder of the world, we have created an underclass which no longewr believes that education is an economic and social good and are unable to wither motivate or help their children. Districts can not send the best teachers to the lowest performing schools — union seniority, you know. Subject matter master is lacking as teachers opt for th inexorable salary incrases that come from additional education courses. School choice, requiring parent involvement, is the best opportunity for school desegregation, but it is withheld by the public education system. How is America to compete in a 21st Century wold economy? - Bill - Wednesday, Jul 25, 07 @ 8:43 am: Fan, if he extends that theory to government support for his University he would lose his place at the trough. How successful would an outspoken advocate of “Friedman capitalism” be in his revered private business sector. Not very, would be my guess. - fedup dem - Wednesday, Jul 25, 07 @ 8:55 am: Fan of the Game is incorrect about the Postal Service. The USPS no longer receives tax funds; it has to pay its own way. While I am no fan of the Postal Service when they screw up (which is all too often), I must in fairness point out that postal rates in this country have not risen as rapidly as those in the rest of the world over the past quarter-century. - Fan of the Game - Wednesday, Jul 25, 07 @ 9:06 am: Bill, That would simply be a guess. I would imagine he would find much success in business with doctorates in both economics and law and with the business contacts he has. BTW, I appreciate your acknowledgement that some governmental programs are “troughs.” - Squideshi - Wednesday, Jul 25, 07 @ 9:09 am: “‘Don’t pity us. Profit from us,’ says Pam Heavens, executive director for the Will-Grundy Center for Independent Living.” Pam is awesome. She’s an excellent advocate for the disabled in her community. - Squideshi - Wednesday, Jul 25, 07 @ 9:12 am: “No one in Illinois is proposing a single payer health plan.” Wrong! Greens are proposing a single-payer universal healthcare in Illinois, and that’s one example of a major difference between us and the Democratic Party. - Squideshi - Wednesday, Jul 25, 07 @ 9:13 am: “Blagojevich urged Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels to rescind the permit, which took effect Monday, and said Illinois officials will consider legal action if he doesn’t.” I like Blagojevich’s rhetoric here, but let’s see if he actually does more than simply talk. - Captain America - Wednesday, Jul 25, 07 @ 9:17 am: No one talks about socialized medicine except right wing conservatives like Walt Williams. Conservatives like him wave the “red flag” every time government tries to do something constructive to address the failures of the mythical free market (e.g., making affordable health insurance available to the uninsured.) A;though I respect Mr. willaims for his intellect and his superb speaking skills, I reject his ideology. His philosphy amounts to a “do nothing” approach to addressing the problem of the uninsured. If it was up to him there would be no Meidcare program for our seniors and disabled and no SCHIP(SP?) propgarm to make health care program available for children in families that do not qualify for Medicaid. The orginal commpassionate conservative, President Dubya, is now showing his true colors by threatening to veto expanded funding for the SCHIP program. Rrepublican ideology,hypocrisy, and incompetence, not bureacracy, are resposbile for our failures to meet the health care needs of our veterans at Walter Reed and all across the nation. It’s time for a change! - Squideshi - Wednesday, Jul 25, 07 @ 9:17 am: “The virtual campus has had a rocky start, with board action delayed for months and faculty opposition to the initial concept of it operating as a for-profit business.” I agree with the idea of decentralizing “educational capital” from concentrated areas within college towns throughout the rural areas of the state through the use of things like online education, but it shouldn’t be for profit. In particular, the Supreme Court’s rule that only ABA approved law school graduates can be permitted to the bar in Illinois needs to be struck down. The state has no business delegating such a function to a private, voluntary association of lawyers, in who’s best interest it is to actually limit their number of competitors in the market. - Ghost - Wednesday, Jul 25, 07 @ 9:22 am: Enron type occurences demonstarte that market driven forces produce corruption and poor services in the private sector. For that matter ever try and get customer service from a large retailer, or a restraunt, or a Dell, or Amazon, or E-bay, or Paypal….there are more complaints about market-driven services then government. The number of investigations and complaints receievd by the Better Buisness Burea, Dept. of Prof refulation, and the Attorney general show far greater disatisfaction with market driven services. - ZC - Wednesday, Jul 25, 07 @ 9:23 am: Let’s see. I’m going to list everything I can find wrong about other nations’ health care delivery … and avoid discussing anything that could be wrong about our own. Except obviously our government is bad, because I’m going to list every possible example of government failure I can think of. But then I will avoid considering anything government does right, and avoid mentioning any of the documented problems with U.S. private health care. Look, any system of health care is going to make people unhappy, because the key resource to be distributed - health - is only very partially under an outsider’s influence. There’s always going to be scarcity, and unhappiness with whatever system you set up. There’s no health care system on Earth I am aware of where everyone seems content with their service. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t better and worse. Miller seems to think the problems are greatest with government provision of health care. But in this article at least, he spectacularly fails to do even the most minimal true cost / benefit comparisons between the different approaches. This is argument by biased anecdote, which admittedly seems all too prevalent (see: Sicko) on both sides of the health care op-ed wars. - Bill - Wednesday, Jul 25, 07 @ 11:01 am: Sorry Squid, I forgot. - Jerry - Wednesday, Jul 25, 07 @ 11:49 am: The “free market” has led to the United States having health care costs per capita that are only one third higher than the costs of the next highest OECD country (which would be Norway). And that’s with 40 million uninsured. And the quality of our health care is barely better than that of Cuba! CUBA! Where exactly is all this efficiency in the free market? Also, the USPS has always been self-supported. Amtrak gets some subsidy, as was required in the deal that relieved the freight train companies from providing passenger service. PBS and NPR are almost entirely funded through donations. They actually get very little in the way of federal funding. Moving government services to the private sector also encourages much greater likelihood of corruption and crony capitalism. The Hired Truck scandal, for instance, was rooted in a decision by City Hall to sell off its dump truck fleet and rent trucks from private businesses. The program quickly became a patronage dumping ground. Plus the private sector has to make a profit, so you either end up with a lower level of service or a higher cost to the taxpayer, or both. Free market failures can be found in many other places. The FDA, for example, under Bush heavily scaled back inspections, relying upon the private sector to police itself. What did we end up with? Poisoned dog and cat food, e-coli outbreaks all over the country, toxic additives in food products coming in from China, and beyond. Then there were problems with prescription drugs that were inadequately tested. Cut corners to cut costs and boost profits. The private sector has a hard time thinking long term with heavy pressure to provide ever-improving results every quarter. Why worry about the possibility of a drug that ends up killing people in 10 years when you can make a billion dollars now? Why worry if the canned chili could cause botulism if it could delay a shipment and impact quarterly profits? Besides, insurance will cover the costs of the lawsuit. - steve schnorf - Wednesday, Jul 25, 07 @ 1:01 pm: I enjoy reading Williams; he makes his points in an articulate way. However, I most frequently don’t agree with him, and that’s the case with his underlying premise here. I would hate to have to list all the market-driven things he must not consume if he thinks I have more complaints about service from the post ofice than I do about service from cell phone providers, air travel, trying to get a live person on the phone at any large business, etc, etc, etc. Being government delivered doesn’t always mean inefficient, and being market-delivered certainly doesn’t always mean well done. How would he like to get his health care services from one of the cell phone companies? Can you phone health care in from India? - Truthful James - Wednesday, Jul 25, 07 @ 2:04 pm: Interesting, Steve, you should mention India. I got an email last week regarding Medical Tourism. It compared the all in costs of in patient services between The U.S. and India. The diffeence between the listed operations (all in costs including hospitalization, surgical staff, gas passers, emdicines and the rest was spectacular. Even should you fly first class between Chicago and India, the costs for the whole list of procedures was well below 40% of the US costs. It would have paid the insurance companies to send you or I over there plus a side trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. Something is out of whack. - Southern Right - Wednesday, Jul 25, 07 @ 3:15 pm: Sorry I’ve missed all the fun. The USPS has had 200 years to get to its high standard. Maybe not a great example, but I prefer FEDEX. Williams is saying alot of accurate facts. Read Illinois Covered and the New Illinois Covered, you’ll find a larger jump from the truth. As far as would any government plan be better than private plans. Absolutely. The states ICHIP plan could be funded at a higher rate and that would reduce the need for much of the Governors proposals. The problem is he won’t get to publish his name on ICHIP. What’s the biggest difference between Kidcare and “Governor Rod Blagojevich’s All Kids”? His name ain’t on it. I thought you couldn’t put your name on programs aka GRB’s AllKIDS. Check out the website. I may be missing something, but some of my taxes ended up funding some of the plan. Howabout Southern Right and GRB’s AllKIDS or Southern Right and GRB’s Illinois COvered. Has a nice ring to it. Might help me get elected. - Jerry - Wednesday, Jul 25, 07 @ 6:41 pm: The Burge stuff is really sick. The defense legal bills are obscenely high. - Aleda - Friday, Aug 10, 07 @ 7:55 am: Nice! Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.