GOP health bill shows challenge of health insurance reform

Nov 4,2009 Excerpts from Kansas City Star Editorial

Republicans have offered an alternative of their own that they promise won't raise taxes, change the doctor-patient relationship, or cut Medicare.

But the GOP alternative also shows why health care reform is so tough: Each piece of health care reform interlocks with the others.

The Republican bill doesn't force insurance companies to provide coverage for those with pre-existing conditions

Why would the GOP not protect people with pre-existing conditions? That's one of the most popular part of health care reform

Here's why: Insurance companies have repeatedly said they can cover those with pre-existing conditions only if everyone has to buy insurance. Premiums from healthier workers, they say, will cover the costs of those with illnesses.

But if you require everyone to have insurance, you're deep in the muck. Do you fine people who don't get it?
And if you subsidize premiums for the poor, you have to find a way to pay for it. Raise taxes? Cut other spending ?

Instead, Democrats and Republicans are trying to glue some very different parts onto a model without an instruction sheet. No wonder it's so complicated.
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