Wolf Howling: single payer system

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

The Opposite Of Straight Talk

There is a special place reserved in the American pantheon for those people who "say what they mean and mean what they say." Obana represents the opposite. Not but two years ago, as he campaigned for the Presidency, he spoke about a single payor health care system before the SEIU. He could not have been more explicit in stating that he envisioned that a "public plan" health care option, put in place today, would crowd out private insurance and result in full government control of healthcare in about two decades.

And in the wake of his push for a public option, the main criticism of a "public option" has been on precisely that ground - that a public option would result, if not tomorrow, then in the foreseeable future, in a complete government take over of health care. Obama now claims that it would do no such thing. Who are we to believe, Obama or . . . well . . . Obama.

The White House has come out obfuscating furiously. They have laughably opined that the Obama-SEIU video was "taken out of context" and utterly false. They do not show any of the video. The White House instead just shows Obama's very recent statements claiming otherwise. Compare and contrast:

There is no objective reality when it come to Obama. This truly is Orwellian. How much would anyone like to bet that no one in the press will follow up on this with anything other than a softball question at best.

Reality & The Public Option

Lest there be any doubt that the public option is intended to end private health care, there are Obama's own words:

One would think that public opinion would have completely tanked for the public option after Obama had the following exchange during his hour long infomercial on the public option:

Devinsky asked the president pointedly if he would be willing to promise that he wouldn’t seek such extraordinary help for his wife or daughters if they became sick and the public plan he’s proposing limited the tests or treatment they can get.

The president refused to make such a pledge, though he allowed that if “it’s my family member, if it’s my wife, if it’s my children, if it’s my grandmother, I always want them to get the very best care.

That was a telling moment. And it would seem that, whatever he might say, Obama proposes a government takeover of the healthcare system. The losers in this - the middle class who have decent health care coverage now but who will have a system imposed on them that seeks to cut costs by admittedly limiting treatment, particularly to the elderly. Clearly the wealthy, such as Obama, will not be forced to accept the consequence of a single payer system. The poor already have access to health care in many, if not most cases. The large portion of uninsured who do so voluntarily won't be helped - they will be forced to pay for a service they do not think that they need. Ultimately, the only winner in this will be those in government who want to increase their control over our lives.