Back in 1961, Ronald Reagan warned that socialized medicine would arrive in America in incremental fashion, beginning with the proposed King-Anderson Bill (the precursor to Medicare), and despite the overwhelming opposition by Americans. Half a century later, after decades of relentless expansion of government control over healthcare through programs like Medicaid, EMTALA, SCHIP, Bush's Medicare prescription drug benefit, and now ObamaCare, Reagan's warning is drawing ever closer to actuality.
Reagan was not fully consistent in heeding his own warning. He supported a smaller bill to provide federal healthcare to indigent seniors and, as president, signed EMTALA, the law that forces hospitals to provide free healthcare to the poor. But that is beside the point. The point is that, he was right on the dynamics of the process.
Betsy McCaughey is warning that the Wheels [are] Coming Off of ObamaCare, even though full implementation is still a year and a half away. Many fewer people than promised will be covered, and costs will soar. In particular, millions of children will be left without insurance.
But the failures of ObamaCare will not be the end of the story.
By now a blind monkey can see that the road to socialized medicine that Reagan foresaw has been playing out. ObamaCare is just a way station on the way to full socialized medicine, which may now be only a step away.
As I've noted before, the Left is ready to respond to the inevitable failures and shortcomings of ObamaCare--which they never liked--with Medicare-for-All. The mother of all healthcare battles is brewing, as the end game draws ever closer.
Related Reading:
Get ready for the Coming Post-ObamaCare Battle
The Left's False Alternative on Health Care
3 comments:
If Obamacare is already falling apart, the Left might not wait 1.5 yrs. to attack. In any event, should WE wait? Maybe we should attack, politically, if there's any of us with the ability to make a substantial effort.
A major political attack must come from a major political establishment like the GOP or, perhaps, the Tea Party.
Conservatives and Republicans have been screaming "socialism" with every incremental advance of government into medicine. Yet their alternative has typically been to defend the status quo, thus solidifying previous encroachments.
At some point, possibly at the back end of Obama's second term, they will confront real, undiluted socialized medicine. Will they have the guts to advocate repeal of ObamaCare, Medicare, and all the rest?
We may not have much time to educate them with the right ideological firepower. But, that's our only hope.
Then they must be educated as soon as possible. That requires that we have enough time. But we don't want MUCH MORE than enough, or the teaching will dissipate by the time it becomes crucial. If that happens, they'll have to be re-exited at the right time.
If NONE of them now have the right ideological firepower, can we expect any of them to have the guts? With the firepower, maybe enough of them will have the guts, if, indeed, they ever wanted to do the right thing in the 1st. place. You might remember I've expressed doubts, at best, about that before. But, as you say, that's our only hope.
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