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Tuesday, July 03, 2007
A Beachhead in the Campaign Against Free-Market Primacy
Business Week has an interesting article on how some in the corporate community are embracing government-run health insurance. It's not particularly new news, but the article shows that some true-believers in the primacy of the free market are becoming more practical. They're moderating their views on government's capacity and role in society (though their faith in the market probably hasn't been shaken, paradoxically).
[Safeway CEO Steve] Burd first tried wellness and preventive-care programs. But it wasn't enough. His frustration grew so strong that he underwent a fundamental conversion: The lifelong believer in keeping government out of corporate affairs became convinced that, to rescue the U.S. health-care system, government had to get involved. Ultimately, all Americans needed coverage, and CEOs had to lead the charge. "I've become a bit of an evangelist on this," says Burd, sitting in his fifth-floor corner office overlooking the bustling Amador Valley, outside of Oakland, Calif.
While some in business are getting more practical, the ideologues see the health care issue merely as a test of their faith.
Conservative purists insist on free-market remedies. "No bureaucracy will ever be able to get the scale of change we need," asserts former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.). And the Bush White House stands prepared to work with conservative groups to block any fix that increases the reach of government. "My message for the CEO of Safeway is to focus more on your private-sector solutions and less on trying to get other people to absorb your costs," says Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, who favors market-based measures such as expanded medical savings accounts.
Could health care become the wedge issue that breaks apart the conservative coalition? A boy can dream.
But anyway, as business drifts further into the "socialized" medicine camp, it is becoming clear that more structural factors are coming together to usher in a massive change in health care policy. Will the fiscal policy community, with its purported commitment to eliminating the long-term fiscal gap, be ready for it?
Posted by Matt Lewis
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