Posted by
Always To The Right on Friday, October 17, 2008 9:51:03 PM
Hawaii has ended an experiment with universal health care for children because it proved a little too
successful. Seven months after launching Keiki Care, a flood of
enrollments caused it to run over budget. The social engineers in
Hawaiian government just learned a lesson about free-market economics
and the effect of government distortion (via The Corner):
Hawaii is dropping the only state universal child health care program in the country just seven months after it launched.
Gov. Linda Lingle’s administration cited budget shortfalls and other
available health care options for eliminating funding for the program.
A state official said families were dropping private coverage so their
children would be eligible for the subsidized plan.
“People who were already able to afford health care began to stop
paying for it so they could get it for free,” said Dr. Kenny Fink, the
administrator for Med-QUEST at the Department of Human Services. “I
don’t believe that was the intent of the program.”
Fink gets this entirely wrong. Taxpayers didn’t get this for free. They paid for it with their taxes.
Keiki Care took taxes and directed it into creating a universal
health-insurance program for children, and apparently didn’t set any
income requirements for entry. Why wouldn’t the taxpayers whose money
funded the risk pool take advantage of it?