Another Krugman Non Sequitur, This One on Health Care
Look at this:
A trivial but telling example
Example of what? Of the absurdity of the US health care system.
Today’s mail brought a letter from Princeton: all faculty members must supply copies of their marriage licenses and of their 2008 tax forms if they want to have their spouses continue to receive health benefits. I don’t know exactly what that’s about — are there a significant number of my colleagues just pretending to be married?
We’ve checked — we don’t know where our marriage certificate is. We’ve already sent to California for a copy — but given the state of that state, God knows when or whether it will actually be delivered.
I assume the university has some good reason for doing this; but from a social point of view it’s just bizarre.
Now he doesn’t say it in this particular post, but obviously Krugman is telling us our health care system is screwed up, and so the government needs to fix it.
So, does Krugman seriously believe that stupid pointless form-filling-out is going to go down when the government gets more involved in health care?
And let’s look at the specific reason this is such a chafe for him. The government record keepers in the most “progressive” state in the country can’t be bothered to send him the form he needs.
Far from justifying bigger government in health care, Krugman’s anecdote–to the extent that it has any relevance–shows the opposite.
