Posted by
voice_of_reason on Tuesday, September 15, 2009 7:30:30 AM
Now, I understand ... why Leftists spent so much time demonizing Health Insurance companies.
From late night comics to news shows, HMOs and Health Insurance companies were disparaged. While tapping into an understandable level of 'consumer angst', Leftists were vilifying these companies to set them up.
They were setting the stage for eliminating those companies, and replacing them with GovtCare.
The fact is that if we analyze cause-and-effect, it is Govt meddling [the very creation of Medicare and Medicaid] that raises the cost of HealthCare [which is then reflected in the higher premiums charged by insurance cos].
Classically, Leftists make targets out of private insurance cos who are responding to market forces that are NOT of their creation. And, no one wants to be seen as the defender of those much-derided, profit-seeking, healthcare-denying insurance cos.
Republican leaders are guilty of cognitive dissonance about Medicare. The GOP's
Seniors' Health Care Bill of Rights, goes on about 'protecting Medicare'. Clearly, Republicans are afraid of touching this 'third rail' of politics, for fear of alienating the 65+ crowd.
Unfortunately, this emasculates any Republican stance against ObamaCare.
Some columnists, such as
John Stossel are able to demonstrate the obvious linkage between Medicare and today's Health Insurance crisis. But, politicians who must rely on voters for their political lives are critically weak in this debate. All that they can say is that "Medicare is inefficient ... and we should not expand it to cover all Americans."
Are there any Republican politicans who can make the following conservative argument:
* Medicare: disconnected a significant population from costs
* Medicare: led to a distorted, higher demand for products & services - which led to higher costs
* Medicare: resulted in cost shifting, created the climate of increasing premiums for everyone
Therefore, we should phase out Medicare in order to restore a normal market for HealthCare. Otherwise, all attempts at 'reform' are a shell game -- they ignore the 'cause', but spend a lot of time railing against those evil insurance companies, who must raise premiums [the 'effect'] to respond to the increasing costs of the underlying product.