Healthcare

Before Voting on a 1,000-Page Bill, Shouldn’t We Understand the Problem We’re Trying to Fix?

By Carroll Andrew Morse | August 14, 2009 |

In his defense of a Canadian-style single payer system for health insurance appearing in today’s Projo, Dr. Michael M. Rachlis either makes a case that President Barack Obama is badly misguided in his belief that government has to get more heavily involved with medical decision-making as a part of healthcare reform, or else he calls…

Whitehouse Responds About Reading

By Justin Katz | August 14, 2009 |

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse’s office has sent a response to my inquiry as to the senator’s knowledge of the complexities of the healthcare bill: Thank you for your interest in the important work of reforming our health care system. As a temporary member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee over the last several months,…

Challenging Those Fishy Healthcare Claims

By Carroll Andrew Morse | August 12, 2009 |

So far, the best e-mail sent to the White House tip line on health care discussions has got to be former National Economic Council Director Keith Hennessey‘s…I call to your attention several fishy statements about health care reform legislation made by a gentleman named Dr. Douglas Elmendorf. He claims to be Director of the “Congressional…

Facing the Healthcare Committee

By Justin Katz | August 12, 2009 |

Sure, it would take a few stolen bases to present the thought in the form of an argument, but watching the Tiverton School Committee stand firm against requests from parents for permission to move their children out-of-district to be better served (they believe) elsewhere, I couldn’t help but flash forward to some similar plea within…

Unions Sowing Fear in the Streets

By Justin Katz | August 11, 2009 |

As a follow-up on the subject of organized labor stoking civil violence, it turns out that one of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) members who crossed into physical violence in St. Louis wasn’t just a overexcited layman: Elston K. McCowan is a former organizer – now the Public Service Director of SEIU Local 2000…

Healthcare Makes for a Dog’s Life

By Justin Katz | August 10, 2009 |

The ever-worth-reading Theodore Dalrymple, himself a doctor, compares international — and inter-species — healthcare programs and comes to some insightful conclusions, including this one: Across the Channel, there is very little that can be said in favor of a health system which is the most ideologically egalitarian in the western world. It supposedly allots health…

You Don’t Get to Decide About Keeping Your Current Healthcare Coverage, Unless You are One with Your Employer

By Carroll Andrew Morse | August 10, 2009 |

A number of analysts have begun to note that, under current Democratic healthcare proposals, President Barack Obama’s promise that “if you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan” is not reality-based. Under the Democratic plans, “you” don’t get any choice in whether to keep your existing coverage if…

Sit Down, Community, and Be Organized!

By Justin Katz | August 8, 2009 |

If anything, Mark Steyn’s latest lays on the wordplay a bit too thick, but apart from his usual humor, this one’s worth reading if only to sow the last four sentences of this block quote into the conservative repartee: “The right-wing extremist Republican base is back!” warns the Democratic National Committee. These right-wing extremists have…

The First Murmurs of Political Ugliness

By Justin Katz | August 7, 2009 |

John Loughlin, the presumed Republican candidate for Patrick Kennedy’s seat in Congress, has issued a press release stating that “the Congressman has a basic obligation to share his in-depth knowledge” about healthcare legislation at three to five town-hall-style meetings. As a matter of an elected representative’s responsibility, Loughlin is absolutely correct, but constituents might have…

Here Are Yer Angry Mobs!!!

By Marc Comtois | August 7, 2009 |

Dana Loesch has some pictures of the “angry mobs” showing up at the Health Care Town Halls (you know, where there is supposed to be an open discussion, yada yada yada). Here’s an example: Scary! Peggy Noonan: The leftosphere and the liberal commentariat charged that the town hall meetings weren’t authentic, the crowds were ginned…