Our fellow Kossack Giles Goat Boy has arrived at the first part of the Regressives' Health Care Plan - "Don't get sick", from a book that he saw at the Piggly Wiggly checkstand. It is an excellent diary and if you haven't read it yet, please do (because that is a pre-requisite for reading this diary :-) )
So, the first part of the Regressives' Health Care Plan is - "Don't get sick".
Now, here is how the other part comes in...
First, consider that some 47.5 million people are uninsured in the US. Now, if they ever need any acute health care, they need to go to the ER. Let's say that some 46 million or so of those don't need any healthcare at all, so they don't cost the taxpayer anything.
However, in any year, some 0.5 million of the uninsured (i.e. about 1%) will probably have a serious, life-threatening condition whose treatment costs, say $100,000 per patient. And another million (i.e. about 2%) might need treatment that costs, say $50,000 per patient.
Add up the numbers and this is what you get :
0.5 million X $100,000 + 1 million X $50,000 = $100,000 million i.e. $100 billion per year.
So, it costs the taxpayers $100 billion every year to pay for the health care of the uninsured. (And this is assuming that 46 million of the 47.5 million uninsured never use the ER at any time during the year).
Now, doesn't the phrase "$100 billion per year" ring a bell? Yes, this is about the same amount many of the proposed health care plans that have the public option are projected to cost per year. And as we all know, the Regressives have rejected all of those plans.
So why would the Regressives reject these proposals that would cost us $100 billion a year when the status quo is already costing us $100 billion or more per year, to treat the uninsured? Hmmm... Gee, I wonder if they have any alternative plan that will lower that amount?
The Regressives claim to be fiscal conservatives, so I believe that they will be strongly motivated to lower the costs. If any of the above 1.5 million sick folks had died quickly, the costwould have been less than, maybe far less than, $100 billion, right? In fact, the quicker they died, the greater the savings. Therefore, the only alternative plan that makes "sense" (from the twisted perspective of the Regressives anyway) is this :
"If you get sick, die quickly"
So, there you have it - the other part of the Regressives' Health Care Plan!