[fightinJAG]

Orient dates our present trite meme "ObamaCare" back to the Clinton era when Republicans, led by Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, "turned around and implemented on their own some of the very worst features of the Clinton plan."

Just last week Gingrich said there were about 300 pages of Obamacare that he would implement.

Gingrich also said his goal for healthcare reform was to achieve "universal coverage":

This comprehensive approach—cost, quality, competition, and coverage—can solve the problem of the uninsured with no individual mandate and no employer mandate. Everyone would be able to obtain essential health care and coverage when needed. For those who are too poor to buy health insurance, states will have more flexibility to provide them with the assistance they need to buy it. For those who nevertheless choose not to purchase coverage and then become too sick to do so, high risk pools will provide access to coverage. Once you have health insurance, you are assured you can keep it. By contrast, even Obamacare for all its trillions in taxes, spending, new entitlements, and new bureaucracy still does not achieve universal coverage.

So, individuals won't be forced (mandated) to participate and employers won't be forced to participate, but everybody still gets FREE STUFF!!

For a discussion of this paragraph, if interested, start here at # 118.

[hellbender]

The whole idea of health insurance is flawed. Insurance is to cover catastrophes which no individual can deal with. You do not buy home insurance to cover painting, plumbing, and other normal maintenance, and no one should expect health insurance to cover flu, colds, blisters, osteoarthritis, routine eye exams, etc. The Left advocated universal health insurance and HMOs knowing that they were just a stepping stone on the path to socialized medicine...oops, I mean "single-payer" coverage of everything. Having third parties, even private insurers, involved in every transaction between patient and doctor inevitably increases costs and compromises privacy.

Just think: should there be universal plumbing insurance? Mandatory car maintenance insurance? Only a socialist would think so.