Rick Perry was right on binational health insurance

Texas Gov. Rick Perry's endorsement of a "binational health insurance" program with Mexico has drawn increasing attention this week. Most of it points to a 2001 plan, where Perry lauded an "an important study that will look at the feasibility of binational health insurance" that could "treat maladies unique to this region." "Binational health insurance" with the United States and Mexico doesn't exactly make for a great sound bite in the Republican primaries. But the policy Perry discussed in that speech was actually a really good, conservative one that Texas would have been smart to implement. To clarify, what Perry referenced was not a merging of Mexico and the United States' public health systems. It was not, as Wonkette put it, "US-Mexico Obamacare." Rather, he pointed to a newly passed Texas law, which directed the state to explore allowing private health plans to cover services in Texas and Mexico. Those plans would then be available to any Mexican national or American citizen working within 62 miles of the Texas-Mexico border. … Last, binational health plans probably would cut into reliance on public programs, particularly the Children's Health Insurance Program, the same report concluded. "Proponents saw binational health plans as a new, affordable private health insurance that could replace the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)," the report says. "Savings in tax dollars would be generated with a decreased number of children on SCHIP and revenues from health care would increase (due to reduction in uncompensated care)." … (Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com …