The Return Of Socialized Hilliary Medicine

Speaking of things we'd rather not see resurrected, Hillary Clinton has unveiled a second try at socialized medicine. As Rich Lowry reports in the article below, this version is more dangerous precisely because it seems less radical, building on decades of previous progress toward the incremental socialization of medicine.

Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani has set the pace for Republican candidates by proposing some mostly good pro-free-market health-care reforms, which are also promoted in the Wall Street Journal by Karl Rove—who would be more credible on this issue if he didn't describe Bush's 2003 expansion of Medicare to cover prescription drugs as a "free-market solution."

"HillaryCare 2.0 ," Rich Lowry, RealClearPolitics, September 18 When it comes to health care, Hillary Clinton is never going to let her name be associated with the words "radical overhaul" ever again. Or, if she can help it, with massive bureaucracy or new taxes. That's what happened in 1993 with her health-care plan as first lady, and, as she never tires of saying, she has "the scars to prove it."…

For a liberal seeking to expand government-run health care, it's not necessary to create new, elaborate governmental mechanisms that are vulnerable to parody and frightening to voters. Simply building on the status quo is enough to hasten us toward national health insurance.

That's because we have a hybrid system of private insurance and government health care that is increasingly tilting toward government…. Liberals need only push this system toward its logical conclusion….

Clinton's plan would make this ramshackle system worse. She proposes more regulations on insurers and a mandate on large employers to provide insurance coverage or pay a tax. The regulations will make insurance even more expensive, while the employer mandate would only augment the current senseless system of people getting insurance through their jobs….

Clinton proposes widening the availability of every government health-care program at hand—Medicare would be extended to the nonelderly; the S-Chip program for poor children would be extended to the middle class; and the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan would be extended to all. And all without the taint of a "radical overhaul."