magic hillary health
by Brianne Conlan
Published: January 12, 2008
While the 2008 presidential campaign heats up and the economy cools down, one issue looms large on the political horizon for every candidate: health care. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, “54% of Americans receive tax-exempt health insurance through their employers.” As the market falters, more and more employees are forced to cut costs. This includes downgrading their insurance coverage in order to save money.
In response, the Democratic candidates have made universal healthcare a dominate plank in each of their platforms. John Edwards “won waves of applause every time he threatened to take away the health insurance of members of Congress if they did not provide something similar for Americans.” (”Arguing over the cure.” The Economist. 6th Dec. 2007.)
But the question on how to achieve a universal healthcare system still remains.
Hillary Clinton gives the standard democratic response as pulled from her website: “Government will ensure that health care is always affordable and never a crushing burden on any family and implement reforms to improve quality and lower cost.” She goes onto state that “insurance companies will end discrimination based on pre-existing conditions or expectations of illness and ensure high value for every premium dollar; while drug companies will offer fair prices and accurate information.” And as if that wasn’t enough, “providers will work collaboratively with patients and businesses to deliver high-quality, affordable care.”
That sounds awesome! Seriously, I haven’t seen such an unexplainably simple solution to a tremendously complicated problem since Darth Vader killed the most powerful man in the universe by throwing him into a shaft. My only question is why aren’t the republicans following suit? Why are John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney focusing on market mechanisms and increasing competition among states when clearly the answer lies in having the government “improve quality and lower cost.” Isn’t that what the government does best? Why has it taken Washington so long to realize that the solution to the health care crisis lies in saying the “MAGIC WORD!”
Kudos to the Democrats for finally figuring out the crux of the problem and a very special “Muchas Gracias” to Hillary - clearly the brightest of them all. For Hillary alone promises that nationalizing health care will lead to a net tax reduction for Americans. That’s right ladies and gentleman, the government will pay you for the privilege of insuring the uninsured. How can she do that you ask? Because, and again I quote from her site, Hillary can “modernize the heath systems and reduce wasteful health spending.” Once again Mrs. Clinton has leveraged one of the federal governments specialties - reducing wasteful spending! Simply brilliant.
Now that the health care issue is resolved, my only hope is that Clinton will team up with Edwards and Obama to clean up New Orleans - no, to impose a federal ban on hurricanes in the Gulf Coast. Then they can save Angelina and Brad’s marraige, win the World Cup, stop cable networks from running re-runs of Full House and help Wile-E-Coyote catch the Road Runner once and for all!
Hillary’s rum and Zima: “drinking up candidates…”
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