Since I care more about my country than my personal pride, here’s how I lost my insurance: I moved. That’s right, I moved from Washington, D.C., back to Massachusetts, a state with universal health care.
From someone who used to write speeches for President Obama – and for a host of other Democratic politicians.
Intellectual honesty is in my book a form of heroism. Being able to admit you were wrong about something – even wrong about things you used to say or write. Wendy Button notes if she had a dollar for every time she wrote “universal health care will lower premiums” she would be able to afford health insurance in Massachusetts.
(Which by the way is what I consider to be my home state.)
This is huge what she discovers. And what she discovers is that the well intentioned(?) theories of the left too often produce dreadful results.
I want health care reform. I need it, but I want Washington to start over. It doesn’t make me “un-American” or “astroturf” or “racist.” I’m a critic because what Washington is talking about doing has made health insurance unaffordable in Massachusetts.
If Washington won’t go for a simple clean move to a system like Medicare for All, then it needs to do one reform, one new law, at a time — not with a 1,000 page bill where strange things can hide. Line up the 80 percent of things we agree on and vote one at a time to change pre-existing conditions, cut that $500 billion in Medicare’s “waste, fraud, and abuse,” create meaningful lawsuit reform, and add some real competition to insurance companies whether it’s a public option or a pilot exchange program. Show the country that this is possible with lower premiums and more efficiency and then go for the tough stuff. Critics like me want something done right because we actually are up the creek without a paddle. [emphasis added]
Read the whole thing at Politics Daily.
Addendum (10/12/2009):
First. A few years ago our family was “without” health insurance – when my wife was transitioning between her state job and her new career as a teacher. I did not have health insurance through the church. We were able to buy a high deductible plan for our family of 4 for about $450/month. If you run the numbers you will find a high deductible and high co-pay plan costs less over the course of a year than a “Cadillac” health plan.
Remember that the next time you hear a National Public Radio propaganda report about some family struggling to find an affordable plan with low deductible and low co-pay.
Second and more importantly. The writer of the above piece said she went from buying insurance for just herself for $200/month to $500/month. Now think about that. In Louisiana $500/month can cover a family of four. But in Massachusetts it covers just one person – thanks to universal health coverage. Why would anyone with any sense want to live there if they are self-employed? And why would anyone with any sense want to start a business in that state with that kind of insurance overhead?
