Of course I'm liberal, I believe in liberty.

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Vouchers

Kevin Drum points out an editorial that suggests healthcare vouchers, and decides he likes that terminology as a good frame for selling single-payer healthcare. Just to toot my horn for a second, I used the word 'voucher' to explain single-payer healthcare a month ago:
While contemplating all this I wondered if I was the only person who supported both school vouchers and single-payer healthcare. Vouchers are considered further to the right than most Republicans are willing to go and single-payer healthcare is considered further to the left than most Democrats are willing to go, yet I think both are a good idea. Then, just as I was thinking this was a perfect example of how we should look to pragmatic solutions to problems regardless ideology, it occurred to me that both ideas are, in fact, basically the same.

A voucher program as I would like to see it would be a federally funded program where each child gets a voucher of equal value to pay for the schooling of their parent's choice. The single-payer healthcare system would give each person a choice of healthcare plans (insurance) they could choose as they like. Just introduce the word 'voucher' into the healthcare plan and they look almost identical.
However, I wasn't quite at the point of using the word 'voucher' as a selling point. Kevin is right, we should use this term more. Now, if I just can get Democrats to support a good, fully-funded school voucher program....