Sarah Palin feeds the fact checkers
Obama and the Bureaucratization of Health Care
By Sarah Palin
The Wall Street Journal
September 9, 2009
Some 45 years ago Ronald Reagan said that “no one in this country should be denied medical care because of a lack of funds.” Each of us knows that we have an obligation to care for the old, the young and the sick. We stand strongest when we stand with the weakest among us.
Common sense tells us that the government’s attempts to solve large problems more often create new ones. Common sense also tells us that a top-down, one-size-fits-all plan will not improve the workings of a nationwide health-care system that accounts for one-sixth of our economy.
… many of the sick and elderly are concerned that the Democrats’ proposals will ultimately lead to rationing of their health care by — dare I say it — death panels?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052970203440104574400581157986024.html
And…
A Time for Choosing
By Ronald Reagan
October 27, 1964
A young man, 21 years of age, working at an average salary — his Social Security contribution would, in the open market, buy him an insurance policy that would guarantee 220 dollars a month at age 65. The government promises 127. He could live it up until he’s 31 and then take out a policy that would pay more than Social Security. Now are we so lacking in business sense that we can’t put this program on a sound basis, so that people who do require those payments will find they can get them when they’re due — that the cupboard isn’t bare?
Barry Goldwater thinks we can.
At the same time, can’t we introduce voluntary features that would permit a citizen who can do better on his own to be excused upon presentation of evidence that he had made provision for the non-earning years? Should we not allow a widow with children to work, and not lose the benefits supposedly paid for by her deceased husband? Shouldn’t you and I be allowed to declare who our beneficiaries will be under this program, which we cannot do? I think we’re for telling our senior citizens that no one in this country should be denied medical care because of a lack of funds. But I think we’re against forcing all citizens, regardless of need, into a compulsory government program, especially when we have such examples, as was announced last week, when France admitted that their Medicare program is now bankrupt. They’ve come to the end of the road.
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/reference/timechoosing.html
Comment:
By Don McCanne, MD
The heated debate over health care reform was certainly not unexpected. What has been a surprise to many of us is the intensity of the nastiness of the opponents of reform.
In the past, politicians often supported their ideological positions through distortions created by carefully selecting favorable facts and discarding the unfavorable. In the current debate it seems like the ideologues opposed to reform are creating rhetoric that does not carry the burden of factual support. That flexibility allows an introduction of nastiness like we’ve never seen. That has extended all the way to Congress where we heard during President Obama’s address the shout from a Congressman, “You lie!”
The rhetoric is so bad that we have now introduced fact checkers - a problem in itself since since some dispute the facts that the fact checkers are using. Risking the possibility that my comments might be challenged based on my ideology (supporting health care for all), I’ll do my best to provide a little bit of honest fact checking here.
- Sarah Palin selected a quote from Ronald Reagan suggesting that we as a nation will stand together to see that no one in this country “be denied medical care because of a lack of funds.” It would be difficult to interpret this as representing anything other than unambiguous support for the concept of social insurance. Of course then she dispels that notion with her own anti-government rhetoric.
- Placing that same quote of Ronald Reagan in context, it was actually buried in his attack on Social Security, rejecting social insurance as a “compulsory government program.” Although he did say that no one should be denied medical care because of lack of funds, he did not tell us what the source of those funds would be.
- Ronald Reagan said, “… France admitted that their Medicare program is now bankrupt. They’ve come to the end of the road.” That was in 1964. This year, 2009, the conservative leaders in France have again stated that their health care program is bankrupt. Regardless, their health care system has been ranked number one by the World Health Organization, and it is funded at a fraction of what we spend per capita in the United States. The “bankrupt” rhetoric will always be with us, but what really counts is whether or not the system is providing everyone with the health care that they need.
- To prove what a bad deal Social Security is, Ronald Reagan used the example of a 21 year old with average wages. He said that a privately purchased insurance policy would provide a guarantee of 220 dollars a month at age 65, whereas Social Security would guarantee him only 127 dollars per month. As it happens, that 21 year old would be 66 now, and the average Social Security benefit for a retired worker is 1,153 dollars per month (SSA.gov). (I can hear the conservative actuaries saying, “But… but… you lie!”)
- Sarah Palin dared to repeat once again: “death panels.” Although we’ve been saturated with the fact checkers’ “pants on fire” ratings of this comment, that is no problem for the conservatives - the fact checkers lie.
The nastiness of this dialogue has seemed to lock us into a nonsensical “True! Lie!” debate over relatively peripheral issues. This is a debate that the conservatives will always win because it diverts us from the fundamentals of reform. In the meantime, behind the scenes the insurance industry has manipulated its own jackpot win while the noisy public debate has been taking place.
The tragedy is that the Democrats allowed themselves to be maneuvered into a position of a pseudo-bipartisan compromise that is based on a mandate to purchase private health plans that many middle-income Americans cannot afford.
Here is where the debate should have been:
- A Medicare for all program that automatically enrolls everyone is a truly universal program. TRUE!
- A mandate to purchase private health plans is a truly universal program. FALSE!
- The single payer model of reform includes policies that are effective in slowing the increase in health care costs to a sustainable level. TRUE!
- The current Democratic model of reform contains measures that are effective in slowing the increase in health care costs to a sustainable level. FALSE!
- A single universal risk pool that is funded through equitable tax policies will make health care affordable for each and every individual. TRUE!
- A multi-payer system of public and private programs funded from multiple sources, including a mandate to pay partially subsidized premiums for some, will make health care affordable for each and every individual. FALSE!
Come on! Let’s start debating the TRUTH, based on actual FACTS. Let’s advocate for affordable health care for everyone. A fact checker can’t challenge simple human decency.