With the Senate’s healthcare bill’s demise these past few days, I got wondering about the differences between the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and the “Republicare.”  I found this nice comparison from the BBC.

The one thing that struck me is the tax breaks on the wealthy the “Republicare” is going to implement in the first version got taken out from the second version.  More importantly, do people really believe that cutting the revenue gained from taxing the wealthy is *REALLY* going to allow a maintenance of healthcare support?  And more broadly, is taxing the rich really going to be a viable model for years to come?

I think ultimately, both Democrats and Republicans have to get behind a single universal government healthcare provider.  The government will also need to establish what they consider as “mandatory” healthcare services and benefits, and determine a reasonable cost of service price point(s) for the mandatory services and benefits.  These services and benefits need to be adjusted as the citizen grows old as well.  For all other non-mandatory items, the healthcare market can take up the slack and charge premiums to cover those types of services.  I think this is great win for both private and public sectors.