Thursday, April 06, 2006

Harry and Louise Would Hate the Massachusetts Health Plan

The legislature of the most liberal state in the country, Massachusetts, has just passed a bill that would require everyone to buy health insurance and would subsidize insurance for those who can't afford it with government handouts. The Republican Governor Mitt Romney, who is running for President, has said he will sign the bill. But while it is being hailed even by some conservatives, this plan appears to be nothing more than Socialized Medicine.

I don't really know the details of the plan, but I do know that the "Harry and Louise" ads, which helped torpedo the Clinton health plan, showed us that socialized medicine is very frightening. The advertisements, which were sponsored by the nonpartisan Health Insurance Association of America, featured a middle-class couple sitting at a kitchen table looking extremely worried about the prospect of affordable health care. They were terrified at being forced to choose among "plans designed by government bureaucrats" instead of by insurance companies. After seeing these ads most Americans concluded that it would be better for some people not to have any insurance at all.

The United States has the best health care in the world. You can easily prove that by doing a Google search on the phrase "The United States has the best health care in the world," which gives you 278 pages, while a search on, say, "Canada has the best health care in the world" gives you only 12 results. (Although the World Health Organization claims France has the best health care in the world and the U.S. ranks 37th, WHO's "data" is unreliable since the organization is part of the United Nations, which hates America.) The reason the United States has the best health care system in the world is precisely because it's so exclusive. If everyone could go to Harvard, it wouldn't be a very good school anymore. And no one wants to belong to a club that lets everyone in. The only way to continue to have "the best health care in the world" is for the United States to continue to be selective about who actually gets it.

The Cato Institute has warned that the Massachusetts plan would start us on the "slippery slope" toward National Health Insurance. Slippery slopes are perhaps the worst slopes you can imagine. For example, gay marriage (which Massachusetts is also pioneering) would lead us on the slippery slope to people marrying their pets and livestock. Another example of a dangerous slippery slope is marijuana use, which invariably leads to heroin addiction, which we know because studies have shown that most junkies started out by smoking marijuana. The Massachusetts Plan, in a sense, would be a gateway drug that would result in people craving more and more health care. And who would ultimately be the beneficiaries of more health care? Trial lawyers, of course, because more health care will naturally result in more malpractice suits.

The engine that runs our economy is incentive. Socialized medicine takes away incentive. Giving health care away for virtually nothing will mean that the poor will no longer have the incentive to strive to be wealthy enough to afford health care, which means they will stop working and the economy will collapse. Sitting around bored with nothing to do many of these people may turn to marijuana. And we all know where that leads.

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16 comments:

benmerc said...

Who needs details, don't need no stinking details....

Anonymous said...

I agree with Nate, reading JS is a great start for the morning! cheers!

Michelle said...

Brilliant indeed. I don't know of anyone else who tirelessly keeps us up to date with the frightening developments of the "modern" world with such dedication.

Anonymous said...

What tipped me off that this was a Really Dangerous turning point was the support from Hillary.

Anonymous said...

Do you wake up a night in a sweat because you think communists are hiding under the bed?

Anonymous said...

You have good facts and they are clearly presented. Why is there always an Anonymous who throws up communists at someone with a conservative point of view? There are very few communists now, anonymous, because it is a losing cause.

Anonymous said...

"...someone with a conservative point of view" ??? Jan, you're pulling our legs, aren't you? ;)

Anonymous said...

I was referring to your anonymous message asking you about the communists under your bed.

Anonymous said...

Jan, I looked and I only found a couple of atheists under my bed, but that's the same as communists, right? - at least in the US ;)

And, by the way, have you checked the political direction of the Latin America lately? I don't think they look at communism as "losing cause". As long as there is an oppression, there will be a movement with communist ideals.

Unknown said...

BAH! Details are for the un-American! Insurance is for the rich. The poor make enough babies to replace the sick ones as cheap labor. Thank you Mr. Swift for so eloquently showing us the slippery slope that could lead to more lazy American drug addicts.

Anonymous said...

Remember, Mitt's real first name is Willard!

And for the sake of accuracy, we should always refer to him by his real first name.

Thank you.

انفجن said...

strange view ?!! how do you think of that ??

Michael said...

Very interesting read, thanks for sharing :)

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Dr. Azeez Pasha said...

That was a VERY interesting one! Seriously interesting.

Conversion Disorder said...

That is great to hear, thank you for reading!

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