Via Library of Economics and Liberty [1]
Arnold Kling [2] highlights a truism of the left in the Great Health Care Debate:
Greg Mankiw writes [3],
Almost all sweeping health reform proposals involve higher taxes on the rich to provide benefits for those farther down the economic ladder. The redistribution, rather than health reform, is sometimes the main objective.To judge whether my conjecture is correct, ask your favorite pundit of the left the following: What health reform would you favor if the reform were required to be distribution-neutral? That is, you can change the rules of the health system but you cannot change the distribution of economic resources between rich and poor. My guess is that your favorite pundit would either object to the question or would answer by retreating to more modest reforms.
This is a good point, particularly when it comes to the proposals coming from the Democratic Presidential candidates. They do not want to rock the boat by reforming the health care system. Just as most people hate Congress but vote to re-elect their own representatives, most people think there is something wrong with our health care system but don’t want to see any changes to their own health plans. So real health care reform is a political loser. Instead, what is being marketed as health care reform is taxing the rich to pay for more benefits for the middle class (the poor already have Medicaid). emphasis mine