Hail to the Vision!<div><br></div><div>This is my radio commentary/column for this week. To read about Socratic, dramatic, and cosmic irony you will have to consult the full version attached.</div><div><br></div><div>May the Force Always be with Universal Health Care for All Americans,</div>
<div><br></div><div>Nick</div><div><br></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:150%"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"">THE
MANY IRONIES OF HEALTHCARE REFORM</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:150%"><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:150%"><i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"">Using tax penalties,
as we did [in Massachusetts], encourages "free riders" to take responsibility for themselves rather
than pass their medical costs on to others.</span></i><i><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif;background-color:white;background-repeat:initial initial"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:150%">
<i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif""><br></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:150%"><i><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif;background-color:white;background-repeat:initial initial"> Here
is where the federal government can do something<br clear="all">
we could not: Take steps to stop or slow medical inflation.<br clear="all">
</span></i><i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"">—</span></i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"">Mitt Romney, <i>USA Today</i>, July 30, 2009</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif""></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif""><br></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif"> </span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif""> There are many types of irony: sad, wicked, amazing,
and delicious. The tasty ones are those that make you smile and smack your lips
as you savor the incongruities of improbable events. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif""> Let us begin with the most
scrumptious ones. The individual mandate—the principle that all Americans
should be required to buy health insurance—was originally proposed by conservatives
at the American Enterprise Institute and Heritage Foundation.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif""> In the 1990s conservatives used at
least two principles in their argument for the individual mandate: (1) the
obvious truth that the larger the insurance pool the smaller the risk; and (2)
the idea of personal responsibility. Following
Republican principles (including states’ rights), no one will pay a penalty if
everyone takes responsibility for her/his own health care in the free-market
state insurance exchanges. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif""> Critics of the Affordable Care Act
confuse the tax for noncompliance with the new taxes that are designed to pay
for providing about 30 million Americans with health insurance.</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"">
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that 4 million
Americans will refuse to buy insurance, and at $95 per individual the total
would be $380 million in 2014. The
non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that even with the new taxes
Obamacare will provide a deficit reduction of $437.8 billion by 2019.<span style="color:#444444"></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"">Conservatives
are now accusing Democrats of lying about the mandate and taxes, but that makes
Romney also a liar when he said that those who did not comply with Romneycare
would only pay a penalty, one which is actually much higher than that in the
Affordable Care Act.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"">The
most delectable ironies abound in the history of Romneycare. Bay State Democrats, just as Obama was in his
debates with Hillary Clinton, were against the mandate, but Romney vigorously
supported the idea and won in the end. He now insists that he never raised
taxes while he was governor, but he did impose the mandate tax and added fees totalling
$502 million in lieu of taxes. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"">It is
sad irony that the Mormon Romney, whose coreligionists are famous for their
honesty and probity, not only speaks falsehoods, but repeats them even after
they have been publicly corrected. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"">On healthcare Romney repeats a falsehood
that many Republicans spout: “Obamacare means that up to 20 million Americans<b> </b>will lose the insurance they currently have, the insurance that they like
and they want to keep.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"">Also
false are Romney’s claims that the Affordable Care Act “cuts Medicare by $500,000 billion,” that</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#444444"> </span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif">“e</span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif">nding Obamacare saves $95 billion,” and that “Obama is ending
Medicare as we know it.” Romney supports the Ryan budget that truly does end Medicare.
The CBO has calculated that</span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif">
repealing the Affordable Care Act will add $210 billion to the deficit over ten
years, and that it contains (not cuts) Medicare costs. </span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif"></span></p>
<h1 style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:1.6pt;margin-left:0in;text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:windowtext;font-weight:normal">It is also ironic that many of those who
oppose Obamacare want a much more efficient single payer system instead. In February of 2009 a <i>New York Times/CBS</i> poll showed 59 percent agreed with the statement
that “</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#001b2a;font-weight:normal">the government should provide national health insurance.” </span></h1><h1 style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:1.6pt;margin-left:0in;text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#001b2a;font-weight:normal">Those who said
that Uncle Sam should cover all medical problems made up 49% of the
respondents. </span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif;font-weight:normal">Except for the mandate, nearly every other part of
the Affordable Care Act has overwhelming support, including the insurances
exchanges.</span></h1>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif">In an op-ed in <i>USA Today</i> (7/30/09) Romney ironically
conceded that only the federal government was in a position to control our
soaring medicals costs. This of course
contradicts his current position that the states should decide everything on
their own. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:3.55pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%;background:white;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif">After analyzing Romney’s
column, Ryan Grimm (<i>Huffington Post </i>3/4/12)
concludes that the 2010 Democratic Congress did everything that Romney asked
for: sufficient time and reflection, a Senate bipartisan effort, provisions for
cost containment, deficit reduction (verified by the CBO), and rejecting the
public option. That is yet another
delicious irony.<i> </i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif">Nick Gier taught philosophy at the University
of Idaho for 31 years. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Georgia","serif""> </span></p></div>