President Bush's last attempt to reengineer the country's social safety net didn't go so well. No amount of presidential razzle-dazzle could persuade the public to abandon Social Security as they knew it.
But now signs are that in his State of the Union address next week, Bush will be back with some more ideas. These at least initially sound much more innocuous -- what's not to like about Health Savings Accounts? -- but on closer examination they bear many of the same hallmarks of his failed Social Security bid.
Much like private Social Security accounts, Bush's health-care proposals emerge from his radical vision of what he calls an "ownership society."
"To each his (or her) own" could be the motto of thatownership society. But what is on the one hand individual empowerment is on the other an attack on collective values that are key to a society's ability to protect its weakest and most vulnerable members.
In the case of health savings accounts, in particular, the endangered principle is that of pooling risk. Expect to hear a lot more about that not-too-sexy sounding topic in
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Comment--"To each his (or her) own" could be the motto of thatownership society. But what is on the one hand individual empowerment is on the other an attack on collective values that are key to a society's ability to protect its weakest and most vulnerable members.
In the case of health savings accounts, in particular, the endangered principle is that of pooling risk." is a seventy year step backward in time.
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