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March 24, 2011

Be careful what you wish for

Joseph Smith
In his latest effort to get his feet out of the RomneyCare quicksand, Mitt Romney recently wrote that if he were President he "would issue an executive order paving the way for ObamaCare waivers to all 50 states."

Sounds good so far, but what if more of those "laboratories of democracy," jumped out of the kettle into the fire, converting to a state-run single payer system.

As the number of waivers reached 1,040, New York's Rep. Anthony Weiner upped the ante by saying he is "looking into how a health law waiver might work for New York City."

Mr. Weiner, who is said to be a likely candidate for Mayor of New York in 2013, recently chided his fellow Democrats to "ditch the ‘hiding-under-our-desk' strategy and embrace the health care law in 2012 -- because it will be a campaign issue whether they like it or not."

The same Anthony Weiner was a leading champion of single-payer health care during the months of debate among Democrats over the shape of the health care bill. 

Weiner's own web site includes a July 2009 press release:

Single-payer is a better plan and now it is on center stage. Americans have a clear choice. Their Member of Congress will have a simpler, less expensive and smarter bill to choose. I am thrilled that the Speaker is giving us that choice.

So it would appear that a Weiner waiver request may be less to seek relief from onerous obligations, but rather to impose an even more onerous system on the city of New York.

While Weiner and other liberals keep flogging their holy grail, Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson reflects on the health care law's paper anniversary," in the Wall Street Journal:

Some years ago, a little girl was born with a serious heart defect: Her aorta and pulmonary artery were reversed. Without immediate intervention, she would not have survived.

The infant was rushed to another hospital where a surgeon performed a procedure at 1 a.m. that saved her life. Eight months later, when her heart was the size of a small plum, an incredibly dedicated and skilled team of medical professionals surgically reconstructed it. Twenty-seven years later, the young woman is now a nurse in a neonatal intensive care unit where she is studying to become a nurse practitioner.

She wasn't saved by a bureaucrat, and no government mandate forced her parents to purchase the coverage that saved her. Instead, her care was provided under a run-of-the-mill plan available to every employee of an Oshkosh, Wis., plastics plant.

If you haven't guessed, this story touches my heart because the girl is my daughter, Carey...

...I don't even want to think what might have happened if she had been born at a time and place where government defined the limits for most insurance policies and set precedents on what would be covered.

No doubt the Democrats are still privately laughing up their sleeves at their success in passing the bill, but as Mr. Weiner aptly notes, the health care law will be on the front burner come 2012.

Even with a Republican President, however, a recalcitrant Senate may block full repeal, leaving Romney's "executive order" as one possible course of action to return control to the states.

But with the Anthony Weiners of the world still seeking single-payer utopia, be careful what you wish for.

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