Excellent editorial in today's edition of The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review about Gov. Ed Rendell's ongoing efforts to force Pennsylvania businesses to pick up the cost of insuring everyone in the state.
Not much has changed since the plan was DOA in the spring. Rendell still wants to tax small businesses into the poorhouse to provide basic health coverage for 800,000 to 1 million uninsured Pennsylvanians.
The editorial points out that government-sponsored health insurance would eventually lead to more Pennsylvania workers losing insurance through their employers.
The Commonwealth Foundation predicts that by 2012, the Rendell plan won't significantly reduce the number of uninsured from what it is today, according to the Tribune-Review. In fact, the uninsured could be more numerous because, in part, as many as 500,000 people could be "crowded out" of the private insurance market by the allure of the state's cheaper, subsidized program, the newspaper states.
"As usual, Dr. Ed has it backward; don't swallow his elixir," the newspaper says. "Instead of expanding government's role, he should be working to lower health care costs by offering tax credits for health savings accounts or changing the law to allow Pennsylvanians to buy lower-cost insurance from out-of-state providers."
Read, "Rendell's snake oil: The wrong Rx" at the newspaper's Web site.
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