Ignorancerules, even among the bipartisan group of senators known as the "Gang ofSix," who supposedly have immersed themselves in the details of thislife-and-death issue for many months. If they understood even the most basicfacts about how the United States and other advanced countries provideand finance medical care, they simply could not utter the stupid comments thatregularly emanate from their lips.
Everycatalog of mindless remarks about health care must include at least one rant byCharles Grassley, the Iowa Republican who has wasted the country's time bypretending to seek a bipartisan solution when he simply wants to stall or killPresident Obama's proposed reforms.
Not so longago, Grassley alleged he had been told that "government-run" systemsin other countries would have denied treatment to the late Sen. Edward Kennedyfor the brain tumor that ended his life in August because he was 77 years old.That statement drew outraged attention from British doctors, who believed thatthe Iowasenator was talking about their practices. "Jaw-droppinglyuntruthful," protested the chairman of the British Medical Association,who said he found such attacks astonishing.
Sen. MikeEnzi, the Wyoming Republican who has connived in the Gang of Six farce, hasmade similar ominous comments about the medical rationing and reductions incare that would ensue from a "government-run option." He often sayssomething like this while making speeches in which he also claims to be defendingMedicare for seniorswhich indicates that he doesn't understand Medicare is, infact, a "government-run" program.
Medicareand VA Are “Socialist” Too
It is hardto believe that any United States senator could truly be so obtuseabout our own government-run system, having voted on Medicare finances andregulations annually for years. Yet these same geniuses don't seem to realizethat they have also authorized and financed one of the most thoroughlysocialized medical systems in the worldthe highly successful, respected andinnovative Veterans Health Administration.
Yes, the VAsystem is even more "socialist" than Medicare, because the VA runsthe hospitals and hires the doctors directly (like the British system), whileMedicare simply pays fees to hospitals and doctors (like the Canadian or Frenchsystems). Which brings us to the topic of health care regimes in othercountries, and yet another amazing display of ignorance by a member of the Gangof Six.
Just theother day, Sen. Kent Conrad tried to explain his fervent opposition to a"public option" by mentioning the way they do things abroad. TheDemocrat from North Dakotawanted to tell his "progressive friends" that we can achieveuniversal coverage and reduce costslike all of the industrial nations that payfar less than we do to care for all their people and get better resultswithouta government-run program. Referring to systems in France,Germany, Belgium, Switzerlandand Japan,he said, "All of them contain costs, have universal coverage, have veryhigh-quality care and yet are not government-run systems."
It is truethat the countries named by Conrad achieve all those benchmarks, but it isfalse and misleading to claim that none of them have government-run healthcare.
France, which probably has the best system in theworld, is essentially a single-payer plan that operates under their SocialSecurity system. Germanyprohibits insurance companies from making any profit on basic coverage.
Japan provides insurance at a very low cost tofamilies and individuals, while private coverage is used only for a narrowrange of services. Switzerlandruns insurance plans that are so highly regulated, with prices of services anddrugs set by the government, that they would be denounced as communist ifanyone tried to impose them here.
Conrad, likehis colleagues from Iowa and Wyoming, travels abroad on tax dollars,receives excellent briefings and reports from the Congressional ResearchService, and employs lots of staff members to help him.
Can theyreally be that dumb? Or do they just assume that we are?
%uFFFD 2009 Creators.com
