economics diagnoses the healthcare debate: Baumol’s cost disease

http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/17/an-economist-who-sees-no-way-to-slow-rising-costs/

On one hand it is pessimistic: nothing can be done to prevent health care costs from going up.

On the other hand: health care costs do not need to be going up at this pace.

Sadly, I find this insufficient when it comes to comparing European models with the US one.

I am still afraid that both my Significant Other(SO) and I now have pre-existing conditions. So I am watching the Massachussetts elections in dread.

Some rough numbers (they are pretty close to exact, but the exact numbers are left out for privacy)
I/we have very good insurance. But since my SO is not my spouse, the benefit of the insurance is taxable to the tune of 4% of our pre-tax income. So if we had to pay SO's insurance out of pocket it would be roughly 40% of our income. Add to that the state tax of just under 10% on income and the federal tax of 30% -- if we were paying for the insurance out of pocket I would be taking home a little over 20% of my income.

Between my job and my SO's school loans we take <60K per year pre tax. That would mean 15K left or so for rent, food, clothes, co-pays and suches.

My graduate stipend after tax was 17K. So my current take home pay would be less than that as a graduate student.

I am soo grateful that this state recognizes my SO even if the federal government does not. that way I only pay 4% of our income for SO health insurance and not 40%. So I can finally pay down some of my school debts.

To expound a bit on the ridiculousness of health care, if I had to pay my premium out of pocket, it currently stands at a bit over 1.5 times my SO's one so that would be 60% of my income. So just SO's health insurance and mine would be 100%. While I ignored the fact that I should be able to deduct the medical expenses and what not from state/federal tax, the picture is still pretty grim.

I mentioned last time that test for really bad condition came out negative. But if it had come out positive I'd have had to take leave without pay. COBRA exists. But I have to pay my part of what the employer is paying which is roughly 100% of our income. COBRA is broken. Very very broken.

So conclusion: don't be young and get seriously sick?

Compounded to this is that I have no right to vote. I have lived in this country for 15+ yrs. I have worked and studied here legally. I have paid all my taxes. I s it too much to ask that I be allowed to vote?That I be allowed to call a congress(wo)man and talk to them about that as one of their potential voters?

I already have a residency for tax purposes. So why not a residency for non tax purposes such as voting? Maybe not immediately but after some (<15? <10?) years. Now I can insert the obligatory "taxation without representation" arguments used in winning rights for both non-whites and for women, but that seems too populist.