Musing about Healthcare

The lead-off editorial in The Sunday Star-Ledger calls the U.S. Senate bill on healthcare “Change, as Ordered.” While fawning all over the Senate’s work, the editorial writer finds it “curious that President Obama’s popularity is at a low ebb,” dismisses New Jersey residents as “a squeamish bunch,” and pontificates that “the restrictions on funding for abortions are obnoxious.”

Just as preposterous is the claim that this bill will “put a brake on rising costs by encouraging frugality.” When it comes to your health, you get worried, you want the best care, and you think about getting well, not about “frugality.”

Furthermore, a government which has never been able to demonstrate even an iota of self-restraint on any type of spending will never succeed in achieving “frugality.” Au contraire, what Washington bureaucrats will do is to deny you proper medical treatment.

On the same opinion page, columnist Paul Mulshine chastises his own editorial board, writing that “This health care plan could be the biggest ripoff of them all.” Mulshine is correct: His column describes a scenario in which the New Jersey Congressional delegation stood by blissfully, while Obama and Reid paid off senators like Nelson of Nebraska, leaving New Jersey badly represented and out in the lurch.

On December 22, I commented in The View from Bridgewater about how Senators Menendez and Lautenberg are AWOL by ignoring New Jersey interests on healthcare legislation.