ThreeMD beat me to two new articles I was going to comment on, but in case you don’t read him (and why aren’t you?):

* New Hampshire has been experimenting with “free market health care” , and the results are pretty disasterous:

bq. The simple premise of SB 110 was that, by allowing market forces free rein, more health insurance companies would be drawn to New Hampshire, and health insurance costs would drop. My goodness, it didn’t turn out that way. The actual results are that insurance will now be cheaper for the young and healthy (who generally don’t even buy health insurance), but more expensive for the old and sick. Premiums are skyrocketing from 25 percent to 75 percent, or more, for small businesses and families across New Hampshire.

Open up the markets, and cherry-picking occurs. The health insurance companies offer discounts to the healthy folks in the population (young people like me), and raise premiums for the sick. As any smart business would do. Problem is, it kind of goes against our values of “caring for the sick,” and goes against the whole idea of insurance–everyone pays into the system so that when you’re sick, other people’s money helps pay for you, and when you’re well, you’re helping to pay for someone who’s sick.

* The VA did better than commercial health care in managing diabetes patients. Yes, that’s right, that bastion of inefficiency, government-run, Veteran’s Affairs care took better care of patients when compared to commercial health plans. It was a study of 8200 patients, 1300 VA patients, and 6900 commercial patients. Look at that. The government did something right.

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