The Health Care Horse

So the White House says it's ruled out the single payer plan for health care reform.  Oh really?  If you think so, please take the time to watch this video. 

Dr. Gratzer, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute who also happens to be a physician, recently described some single payer realities for the Wall Street Journal.

Not long ago, I would have applauded this type of government expansion. Born and raised in Canada, I once believed that government health care is compassionate and equitable. It is neither.

My views changed in medical school. Yes, everyone in Canada is covered by a "single payer" -- the government. But Canadians wait for practically any procedure or diagnostic test or specialist consultation in the public system.

The problems were brought home when a relative had difficulty walking. He was in chronic pain. His doctor suggested a referral to a neurologist; an MRI would need to be done, then possibly a referral to another specialist. The wait would have stretched to roughly a year. If surgery was needed, the wait would be months more. Not wanting to stay confined to his house, he had the surgery done in the U.S., at the Mayo Clinic, and paid for it himself.

Such stories are common. For example, Sylvia de Vries, an Ontario woman, had a 40-pound fluid-filled tumor removed from her abdomen by an American surgeon in 2006. Her Michigan doctor estimated that she was within weeks of dying, but she was still on a wait list for a Canadian specialist.

Interestingly enough, Dr. Gratzer points out in his column that liberal Democrats are driving the U.S. toward a single payer plan at the same time that Canada is inching away from theirs. 

So let's be realistic.  Progressives, as leftists like to call themselves, know all this about the single payer systems.  They just won't admit it.  Why is that?  One of the single payer shining stars in the video above is Yale Political Science Professor Jacob Hacker.  He is very candid about the underlying rationale for promoting a public option for health insurance.  It inevitably leads to a single payer system.

'Someone once said to me that this is a Trojan Horse for a single payer.  Well, it's not a Trojan Horse, right?  It's just right there.'

[...]

'One of the virtues of it is that you can at least make the claim that there's a competitive system between the public and private sectors.'

Another who makes her appearance in the video is Representative Jan Schakowsky, Democrat from Illinois.  A strong proponent of the single payer model, she is even more open about there being another agenda.  To the cheers of her single payer audience she says,

'This is not a principled fight.  This is a fight about strategy for getting there, and I believe we will.'

Ah, but where is "there?"  Just as the public option can be seen as a Trojan Horse for getting to a single payer plan, health care reform itself is a strategy. Barack Obama is pragmatic about getting and keeping power.  The goal is an enduring progressive majority in congress, and the progressive strategy for achieving it has always been to encourage more people to rely on government.  When people depend upon government they will vote for those who favor more of it.  Health care reform is vote buying on a massive scale.  And the beauty of it is that Democratic votes are bought with federal tax dollars.

Think about it for a moment.  When health care reform finally passes and we all depend on Uncle Sam to cure our ills, what will be the more beneficial to progressive politicians?  A health care system that works?  Or one that requires constant attention from our progressive champions in Washington?

Via Joust the Facts.

Comments

[CaptDMO]

And at any given moment, like failure to pay a traffic ticket for failure to wear a seat belt, ones RFID identity card (drivers licence/travel card), MANDATORY for all actions, suddenly goes
*bink*

Heaven forbid some "lone wolf" that can only find "suitable" employment in da gub'mint bureaucracy decide to maliciously ping the SS# of someone they deem ugly based on "news" reports, or criticism of their incompetence as a "public servant".

How tragic could a simple untraceable "clerical error" like that be?
Anyone here ever had their "electronic identity" stolen?

[RightWingRocker]

I'm using this video.

With proper citation, of course.

RWR
www.rightwingrocker.com