Since the debate over American health-care reform has dominated news coverage in recent weeks, we can depend on Newsweek for critical, dispassionate discussion of the topic, right?
OK, stop laughing.
Jonathan Alter whines that the administration is flailing because it has not yet decided to call health care a “civil right.” One wonders, though, whether Mr. Alter has followed this idea to its logical conclusion. If we have a civil right to health care, then how much health care? Who should decide? The idea that health care is a right falls flat in the face of an important fact: “Someone, sometime has to say no.” Do you want that someone to be someone who works for the government?
Meanwhile, Sharon Begley bemoans the “lies” that are blocking Obamacare and frets that the administration is losing the spin war. Ms. Begley falls into the same trap that snares many on the left. While assuring us that nothing in the Obama plan spells out a provision for “death panels” or calls for an end to private insurance coverage, she doesn’t see that both results are likely consequences of the president’s proposals. Thomas Sowell calls this a failure to think beyond stage one.
Finally, a brief article from Katie Connolly tells us that “Socialism Is The Best Medicine,” as carefully selected statistics prove. If this were true, don’t you think we’d hear a lot more crowing about how great medicine is in Britain and Canada?