May 14, 2009Dear
Friend,
It is now clear that Congress and the president’s
top priority for 2009 is health care reform. Since the collapse
of Hillary-Care in 1994, Democrats have been working to re-plan and
re-package a government takeover of your health
insurance.
This year, they’re hoping to get their
chance. Last month, Senator Ted Kennedy offered a glimpse of
what they have in mind when called for the creation an optional,
“public health insurance plan, where coverage is provided in the public
interest.”
That may sound
nice, but in one sentence, it describes everything that is wrong with
a government take-over of American health
care.
Health care, by definition, can’t be provided in the public
interest because no doctor
has ever seen “the public.
” Doctors see patients: one at a time,
providing
personal care in the
patient’s interest only.
Now, if you listen to the ongoing debate about health care reform,
you hear a common theme, especially from those who favor a government
take-over.
They talk a lot more about costs
than they do about care. Only here’s the thing: the
government is the reason that
costs are spiraling out of control now. Government now covers
100 million Americans, and costs are exploding. Under the
proposed takeover, 130 million more will be added to government health
programs. How can
they expect to get costs under control by doubling the government’s
role in health care?
The answer is by
rationing care. If government wants to cover 230 million Americans
and bring down costs,
the only way it can possibly do it is denying care to people whose
health care is deemed – you guessed it – not in the public
interest.
Under similar schemes in Canada and Great Britain, people
wait weeks to see their doctors, months to see specialists, and years
to get routine
procedures and treatments. High-tech tests and breakthrough medicines
are off-limits because the government decides – in the public interest
– that
they are too expensive.
0
When the late actress Natasha Richardson suffered
her skiing accident in Canada this spring, the hospital didn’t
have an MRI machine. The doctors never knew her injuries were
life-threatening… until it was too late.
That’s how a government take-over of your health care will try
to get costs under control: cheap, outdated treatments, long waiting
lists, and low-tech hospitals. It won’t take long before
families realize the true costs of such a
plan aren’t counted in dollars and
sense.
Instead of the
government-controlled “public option,” we should move toward a
“personal option,” where we help individuals and families
buy and own their
own health insurance plan that no government can ever take-over or take
away.
Health care is personal and
private. It should be administered by doctors and nurses
in their patient’s interest, not
the interests of politicians and bureaucrats in
Washington.
Because never forget: any law that empowers government
to provide health care
in the public
interest implicitly empowers government to deny it for the same
reason.
I plan to play a big part in the health care debate this
summer, and my website will be a clearinghouse for information about
the
issue as it de
velops. Feel free to check in often, as new content
will be added every week. And to help you stay informed,
I’ll be in touch frequently as the health care and other debates move
forward.
Thanks very much, and God
bless.
Jim DeMint
U.S. Senator,
South Carolina
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