The Washington Times
September 30, 2002
Better to act than act shocked
By Greg Scandlen
President Bush has proposed legislation addressing all three ideas – tax
credits, MSA expansion and AHPs. Adopting these three ideas would be the
most serious assault on the problem of the uninsured in more than 35 years.
These are also the only viable ideas currently on the table. Some who prefer
to have the government run everything have argued for expanding Medicaid,
the government’s health care program for the poor, to include all of the
uninsured.
http://washingtontimes.com/commentary/20020930-94445632.htm
Comment: It is not surprising to see the conservative views of the National
Center for Policy Analysis published in the conservative Washington Times.
But what is of concern is that the debate over health care reform seems to
be a debate between those that favor the conservative approaches of the Bush
administration, approaches that totally lack compassion, with those that
favor tweaking our public welfare programs, Medicaid and SCHIP, as if that
would solve our problems.
Those that support public-program tweaking should realize that in their zeal
to move to the right on reform, they are being characterized as individuals
who “prefer to have the government run everything.” In reality, there is not
much difference between the conservatives and the incrementalists. Combined,
they represent one side of the health care debate, although it is to the
advantage of the conservatives to represent incrementalists as the liberal
option.
The genuine other side is represented by those who support true health care
justice: an affordable, comprehensive, equitable, publicly-administered,
universal health insurance program. Let’s all make a greater effort to be
sure that the nation understands this, the moral imperative.