conservatives — VOICES for REASON

Conservatives—and, more broadly, many on the right—are horrified that ObamaCare is getting close to becoming a reality, and rightly so. Indeed, many have been horrified for months, as ominous proposal after ominous proposal has been put forward. Take the recent flirtation with a “Medicare buy-in.” Medicare has, by some estimates, $60 trillion in unfunded liabilities—and over half the Senate was willing to extend this fiscal train-wreck to cover everyone from 55 to 65. Or take the House and Senate requirement forcing insurers to sell policies to individuals with preexisting conditions for the same price as everyone else. This is like forcing a company to sell fire insurance to someone whose house has just burned down. Why would a young, healthy person buy health insurance and pay premiums for years when he can just buy it the first time he gets sick—with a $750 slap on the wrist (the penalty for not buying “mandatory” insurance)?

Such proposals make it easy to demonize liberals as the health-care villains. But conservatives must share in the blame for the likely passage of ObamaCare.

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