Sometimes the publications of the Commonwealth Fund read like articles from The Onion. A good example can be found in this proposal, which begins as follows:
This issue brief sets forth a framework for expanding health coverage that … has the potential to achieve near-universal coverage and improve quality and access, while generating health system savings of $1.6 trillion over the next ten years.
That’s right. The plan will increase access and quality while lowering costs. If you laughed aloud at this, you’re not alone. Here’s how Michael Cannon at Cato responded:
Yesterday, an announcement from the Commonwealth Fund landed in my inbox. The subject line read:
How to Achieve Universal Coverage While Lowering Health Spending
A colleague received the same release, and forwarded it along with this note:
Coming next, anti-gravity and perpetual motion machines.
To which I replied:
…eternal youth, gold from base metals, a lasting peace in the Middle East…
To which he replied:
The dead shall rise, the lame shall walk, the blind shall see.
I’m tempted to throw in something about the Cubs winning the World Series.
In other words, the laws of economics will need to be repealed for this strategy to work. It is these pesky laws that continue to thwart universal coverage plans from sea to shining sea.
That’s not to say that such proposals are without their uses. They provide the health care debate with much needed comic relief.
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