May 21, 2003

Privatize health care? Sure, that'll work...

A Congressional aide said White House officials had made it clear that "they really must have an unequal drug benefit."

[snip]

Under Mr. Bush's proposal, people in the traditional Medicare program would receive drug discount cards and protection against very high drug expenses. People in private plans would get comprehensive drug benefits worth about twice as much as the assistance given to people in traditional Medicare.

Far be it from me to accuse the Administration of favoring the comfortable over the poor, but it seems to me...fortunately for those who think equal treatment from the government is the right thing to do, there are a lot of Congressfolk who think this is wrong. There are also a few who see nothing at all wrong with unequal treatment:

Senator Santorum said he would go further than the Bush proposal. Congress, he said, should gradually end the traditional Medicare program as an option for new beneficiaries in the future, leaving them to choose from a variety of private plans. "I believe the standard benefit, the traditional Medicare program, has to be phased out," Mr. Santorum said.

Right. We've all seen how well deregulation and privatization works in the energy industry, the airline industry, the telecom industry, and so on ad infinitum.

Posted by Linkmeister at May 21, 2003 04:28 PM
Comments

The American medical system has been a very sore point with me for years. I am extremely lucky to have good medical coverage, but so many others I see cannot begin to afford insurance and, in effect, use the local hospital emergency ward as their doctor of choice. Just an absolutely insane approach to health care in America.

f.

Posted by: fred at May 21, 2003 06:51 PM

Fred, if you're looking for an argument you won't get one here; I've been paying for my own insurance for 7 of the last 10 years, and occasionally forgoing things where I have a 50% co-pay because they are just too expensive.

Mucking around with Medicare when there are 41M or so people with no insurance at all is a case of misguided priorities.

Posted by: Linkmeister at May 21, 2003 09:28 PM

Oh, but those folks don't vote, dontcha know? And if they do, we'll just remove 'em from the registers!
[/sarcasm]

It sickens me.

Posted by: The Other Scott at May 22, 2003 02:49 AM