Thursday, February 25, 2010

Hsieh OpEd at PJM: "Republicans: Beware the Trap of 'Limited' Reforms"

PajamasMedia has just published my latest health care OpEd, "Republicans: Beware the Trap of 'Limited' Reforms".

My theme is the seemingly innocuous compromise "reform" of requiring insurers to cover all pre-existing conditions would gradually lead to a full government takeover of health care.

I was very glad to be able to cite John Lewis' excellent TOS article observing that the Democrats' last secret weapon against the American people was the Republicans' willingness to compromise (in the final paragraph).

Here is the opening:
President Obama attempted to revive his faltering health care initiative by releasing a revised version of his plan on Monday. But as Grace-Marie Turner of the Galen Institute noted, the president's basic approach remains to "Tax, Spend, Regulate, Mandate" -- i.e., to impose massive new government controls over health care that Americans have already rejected in tea party protests across the country and in the polling booths of Massachusetts.

GOP leaders have been appropriately skeptical of the president's demand that his plan be the basis for their "summit" negotiations, calling it a "nonstarter." But while they've avoided that obvious trap, the Republicans are still in danger of falling for the subtler trap of agreeing to seemingly benign limited compromise "reforms" that would merely result in a slower government takeover of American health care.

One of the Democrats' favorite limited proposals has been to require insurance companies to accept all customers regardless of pre-existing medical conditions -- an idea supported by many Republicans...
(Read the full text of "Republicans: Beware the Trap of 'Limited' Reforms".)