Is "Fair Share Tax" dead?

Times Tribune article suggests there is no support in the General Assembly for a payroll tax on businesses to pay for "Cover All Pennsylvanians". The administration suggested (as they have on other issues) they are open to alternatives- so long as the alternatives involve getting more money from taxpayers to pay for their plans.

In an interview, Rosemarie B. Greco, the director of the Gov.'s Office of Health Care Reform, said the administration was willing to discuss other funding sources with legislative leaders if necessary, but would not say what those possibilities might be.

"If in fact the fair-share assessment is something that ... would not even stand up for a vote, then I'm sure the governor would want to sit and talk with the leadership about what would the alternative be," Greco said after she testified before the Senate panel.

If the only discussion is about alternative funding sources, Pennsylvania taxpayers and residents have already lost. What we need is free-market alternatives to socialized medicine. Here are some starting points from the Commonwealth Foundation and others:

Free-Market Health Care Reforms
Universal Healthcare's Dirty Little Secrets
State can't fix health insurance problems it created
Governor Rendell’s Healthcare Misdiagnosis
Treating the Symptom Rather than the Cause
For Health Care Woes, a Capitalism Prescription
Eliminating government mandates would lower cost of health insurance

Books:

The Cure: How Capitalism Can Save American Health Care
Healthy Competition: What's Holding Back Health Care and How to Free It