shk75

This whole skin in the game thing has been hotly debated since the RAND study that showed that the less cost sharing individuals experience the more health services they use. There is also a diminishing return in terms of health gained once you are at your 8th, 9th, or 10th doctor's visit for that year. The key is striking a balance where citizens are not sacrificing necessary care because they cannot afford it but are also not wantonly abusing the system without regard to the costs they are incurring. I have seen HSAs mentioned a lot here and the Republicans have a love affair with them; the same with high deductible plans. The problem with these two is that numerous studies have shown that these programs are overburdening beneficiaries who are being forced to sacrifice needed health care because they cannot afford it. I think both of these programs can play a role in a revamped system, but neither one is a panacea. The bottom line is how do you control costs while simultaneously increasing access to care and ensuring high quality. It is not an easy task especially when the system is so fragmented and there are myriad invested interest groups. The ACA tried to accomplish this with various different programs and time will tell if they are successful. However, my guess is that more incremental reforms will take place within the next 20-30 years. My final point is that if you do not impose global budgets and price controls how then do you control a good like health care that is so inelastic? Many do not want government footing the bill but that means someone else will have to pay and that someone will not have the purchasing power that the federal government has. This results in a shortsighted conclusion - I do not want to pay higher taxes for health care but I am OK with paying even more to insurance companies/out of pocket. If you are so anti-government that you are OK with paying more just so your taxes are less, then nobody will change your mind about this issue.

Full disclosure I am a Knicks fan, but I do watch a lot of Wizards games and have always followed them when I could. I just have one thing I do not get. Why did anyone ever think Blatche should be on this team. To me he seems like the definition of a coach killer. Every time I see him he is playing outside of the offense and just doing his own thing, even some times taking the ball up court and shooting a 20 footer only to clank it off the back of the rim. I really think they should have gotten rid of him in the off season when his stock was at its peak and I see him being a locker room cancer.