The New York Times
Letter to the Editor
Published: November 24, 2007
To the Editor:
Re “Giuliani, Foe of ‘Socialized’ Medicine, Expanded Public Care as Mayor†(news article, Nov. 17):
As The New York Times reported on May 3, 1996, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani appointed former Mayor John V. Lindsay to two largely ceremonial city posts to provide Mr. Lindsay with city-financed health insurance and make him eligible for a pension. Although Mr. Lindsay belonged to the upper class all his working life, the cost of his health care had driven him into dire straits in retirement.
Mr. Giuliani saw nothing wrong with enlisting socialized health insurance to rescue an old friend, an approach that Mr. Giuliani, as presidential candidate, now deplores as “socialized†medicine.
The term applies to systems in which the government not only finances health insurance, but also owns and operates all health care facilities. The system at the Department of Veterans Affairs reserved for military veterans, for example, is purely socialized medicine.
If Mr. Giuliani despises socialized medicine, as he now contends, perhaps he would abolish the V.A. health system if he were elected president. American veterans should challenge him to come clean on the issue.
Uwe E. Reinhardt
Princeton, N.J., Nov. 17, 2007
The writer is a professor of political economy at Princeton University.