Common Sense

PERHAPS the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor; a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defence of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason. -Thomas Paine (1737-1809). Common Sense, 1776

Friday, September 21, 2007

NewSpeak 2007: Hillary's Health Care

Hillary Rodham Clinton proposed an overhaul of the nation's health care system Monday that would require Americans to buy insurance ... --Clinton unveils details of her health care plan, Richard Wolf, USATODAY

WASHINGTON - Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday that a mandate requiring every American to purchase health insurance was the only way to achieve universal health care but she rejected the notion of punitive measures to force individuals into the health care system.

"At this point, we don't have anything punitive that we have proposed," the presidential candidate said in an interview with The Associated Press. ...

She said she could envision a day when "you have to show proof to your employer that you're insured as a part of the job interview — like when your kid goes to school and has to show proof of vaccination " ... --AP Interview: Clinton on health care, BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writer, Tue Sep 18, 12:59 PM ET
So let's see, Hillary's system "would require Americans to buy insurance," "a mandate requiring every American to purchase health insurance" is necessary, and soon you would have to "show proof to your employer that you're insured as a part of the job interview — like when your kid goes to school and has to show proof of vaccination," (or like when a cop pulls you over while you're "driving.") BUT, says Hillary, "we don't have anything punitive that we have proposed" AND "she rejected the notion of punitive measures to force individuals into the health care system."

NewSpeak or not NewSpeak, that is the question.

P.S.

"We" will almost certainly get "universal health care" or "single payer" or "socialized medicine" -- pick your label -- because corporations like WAL*MART, General Motors, etc. ALL favor it too.

That alone should warn you. Why would giant corporations want "national health care?"

Let me rephrase that: "Why would giant corporations want you to 'show proof to your employer that you're insured as a part of the job interview'?"

And one more time: "Why would giant corporations want you to be forced to pay for your own health insurance?"

On the other hand, why would YOU want the government to?
Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah): "We've held hearings in the Joint Economic Committee about medical costs, and there is a perverse and countner-intuitive circumstance going on and that the more technology we bring into health care, the more it costs. And this is exactly different from the way things work in other parts of the economy, the more technology you apply, the lower the cost becomes. And as we've tried to pursue why we have the opposite trend in health care, ah, it's because you keep people alive longer. If you were aimed at cost control only, you would let them die and thereby save the cost of their medical care in their later years." --to Senate Banking Committee, July 16, 2003, 10:43:52
There's an answer that doesn't involve mandatory anything. What?

Check out Ron Paul's plan.