Friday, November 13, 2009

Isn't it obvious by now?

Is the House bill better than nothing? I don't think so. It simply throws more money into a dysfunctional and unsustainable system, with only a few improvements at the edges, and it augments the central role of the investor-owned insurance industry. The danger is that as costs continue to rise and coverage becomes less comprehensive, people will conclude that we've tried health reform and it didn't work. But the real problem will be that we didn't really try it. I would rather see us do nothing now, and have a better chance of trying again later and then doing it right.

That from Marcia Angell, M.D. who is a former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School and a huge proponent of single-payer, government-run healthcare.

So what does it say about the current state of Pelosicare that one of the most respected and prominent figures in the medical community says that nationalizing 1/6th of the economy represents just a papering-over of a broken system? Don’t get us wrong – she is entirely in the right by saying Pelosicare does not address any of the real problems with our current health care system but she is advocating for a more comprehensive and complete take-over of healthcare rather than running in the opposite direction - the preferred course of action.

Given the above from a staunch supporter of government-managed healthcare and given Speaker Pelosi’s stunning non-admission admission regarding jail time for Pelosicare scofflaws, when do we just drop any pretense that Pelosicare and whatever transmogrified version of it that will be presented to the President for his signature has anything at all to do with healthcare reform and simply represents a statist power grab?

Knowing what we know, how can it be anything but?

Remember: it's the Freedom, stupid.

No comments: