Repeal and Replace (Part 1)

I will start off my blogging with a controversial topic.  I am not a supporter of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), colloquially known as Obamacare.  

One criticism constantly leveled at critics of PPACA is that nothing is offered as a replacement, and the status quo in US health care had serious problems.  I think most observers will accept this to be true, though with some disagreement about what the most important problem is (access for the left, cost for the right).  

Therefore, I offer this upcoming series of posts as my detailed criticisms of PPACA along with a possible replacement.

I will admit right now that it's a reasonable position to favor a largely private health care system, taking most of the government intervention out of it, and to expect from that a relatively good result.  My own personal expectation is that we'd see many of the benefits of free markets (higher quality and lower prices) and a relatively good safety net of mutual aid societies and charitable care provision.  This, however, is only an expectation based on my understanding of markets, our history, and my optimism about the decency of Americans generally speaking.  I will allow that my expectation could be very wrong.  I also allow that this position is extremely unpopular and will never come to pass, at least not in a sudden transition from the current system.  Therefore, I will not argue such a position here.

Furthermore, I insist that we do have obligations to others, and while civil society is my preferred (and I'd argue optimal) medium for meeting those obligations, there is no need to rule out government involvement per se.  That said, we should also recognize that government has its limitations.

My criticism of PPACA are five-fold:

1) Costs are not effectively controlled, neither on the supply or demand side
2) Many people will remain uninsured or underinsured
3) The subsidies create severe implicit marginal tax problems
4) The health system becomes increasingly byzantine 
5) Mandates to cover certain products or services are levied on businesses and organizations which oppose such products or services on moral grounds

In the next post I will discuss the problem of cost control.

First Post

Welcome to my blog.  My name is Justin, and I am a 28 year old man who resides in northeast Ohio.  I work in finance and specialize in interest rate risk management.  

I intend to comment on various topics, from religion to philosophy to economics from a Catholic and conservative perspective.  I am not a Sophist.   I have sought the truth throughout my life, and my posts will reflect what I believe to be true.  I think I have approached this task honestly and (as much as possible) without bias, as I have adopted or at least considered most viewpoints at one time, from atheism to theism, from libertarianism to liberalism to conservatism.  That being said, if I have learned anything about myself thus far in life is that I make mistakes, and so I am sure I will make plenty of errors.  Please accept that these errors are in good faith.  

The blog's title, Vanishing Mist, refers to James 4:14: "Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.  What is your life?  You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes."

My hope is that this blog title will keep my posts and my interactions with others in perspective.  To the degree I find an economic question interesting, for example, I will try to keep in mind that I am but vanishing mist and that while such questions may be temporally interesting, other things have more importance.  Whether or not the economic stimulus played an important role in the economic recovery, for example, will not be a question on my mind on my death bed.  

I have occasionally posted on various other blogs and websites throughout my life.  Part of my motivation for starting this blog is to present my thoughts in depth and be able to refer to them in the future.  

Thank you for reading.  Grace and peace to you.