I was listening to NPR’s Morning Edition on my drive into the office this morning and I was struck by the way two stories about the federal government were scheduled one after the other. The first was entitled Budget Chief Peter Orszag: Obama’s ‘Super-Nerd’. The gist of the story was that universal health care is Mr. Orszag’s passion, how he’s given it a lot of thought, and how he has big plans for our next entitlement.
Orszag says a new health care system could use psychology to figure out ways to give better medical care, not just more health care. That’s what he really wants to do: combine caring for people with good economic decisions.
The next story, Postal Deficit Grounds Wilderness Mail, was about the United States Postal Service discontinuing weekly airmail deliveries to remote locations.
The flights from Cascade, Idaho, have served ranches, outfitters, lodges and a University of Idaho research station for 50 years. But the $46,000 annual cost is too much for a postal service $6 billion in the red.
I don’t know if the scheduling was by design or by accident, but listening to them in this order got me thinking about something. Something that could be rather important.
If the federal government’s universal health care plan runs a deficit, will the coverage for outlying individuals, as it were, simply be cut? Who will those unlucky people be who had their care red lined because they were considered an unnecessary expense?
Wow, what a thought. Hopefully “diseases affecting less than .1% of the population” wouldn’t be on that list of unnecessary expenses.
Of course, as long as private health insurance is still available at employer-subsidized rates that are at least similar to the current plans, I really don’t care how universal health care turns out.