Posted by
Catmman on Monday, August 10, 2009 10:40:10 AM
"Choice" on health care that is.
I
posted yesterday about some counters to the Dems arguments on health care 'choice'. Ciro Rodriguez is my Representative from Texas and has made this same argument. Many congressman are turning to this argument when challenged on the question: will you put yourself or your family on the government plan? Rep. Rodriguez has said no. Now Rep. Tsongas has said no as well for basically the same reason - what they have now works for them. Their current plan is working gangbusters for them, so they don't need the government plan as proposed. If what
they have now works for them, then why isn't what
we the people have now working (or good enough) for us?
If the government plan is so all-fired great, then
why wouldn't these Reps be the first in line for the plan? If 'choice' is the argument, "
we're giving more 'choice' to the American people" then
1) why aren't we being given the 'choice' of opting out, without paying exhorbitant penalty?
2) Why don't we have the 'choice' to rally against this plan, without being denigrated by congress-people?
3) Why is the government plan the only 'choice' our congress-people are writing into the legislation?
Ed Morrissey explains it thusly:
No, Representative Tsongas, you’re not creating choice. You’re restricting choice,
both explicitly and implicitly. The ObamaCare bill explicitly forces
private insurers into conformity in dictating coverages in order to
qualify under state “exchanges”, which greatly reduces choice and will
almost certainly wipe out at least some existing private plans.
Implicitly, the public option will undercut private insurers and give
businesses a chance to opt out of providing coverage at all — which
means as many as 83 million Americans will lose their insurance in the
first ten years. Thanks to the rules set up by ObamaCare, those people
will have no choice at all but to take the public option.
Beware the cook who won't eat his own food.
UPDATE:
Giving further lie to the 'choice' argument. Scary stuff.