Listen closely to what the President says when he isn’t reading the script from his teleprompter and it’s possible, occasionally, to get a glimpse of the action he is planning. His town hall meeting yesterday in Portsmouth, NH is a good example. During the Q&A, he hinted at what he really has in mind for the country’s health care system. Here is his answer to whether or not he intends to move the U.S. to a single-payer health care plan:
“I have not said that I was a single-payer supporterbecause, frankly, we historically have had a employer-based system in this country with private insurers,and for us to transition to a system like that I believewould be too disruptive. So what would end uphappening would be, a lot of people who currentlyhave employer-based health care would suddenly findthemselves dropped, and they would have to go into anentirely new system that had not been fully set up yet.And I would be concerned about the potentialdestructiveness of that kind of transition. All right? SoI'm not promoting a single-payer plan.”
Twice, the President reveals his hand. He says, “So what would end up happening would be, a lot of people who currently have employer-based health care would suddenly find themselves dropped, and they would have to go into an entirely new system that had not been fully set up yet.” Why would he say those people who would be dropped from their employer-based health care would be forced into a system that “had not been fully set up yet”? This answer suggests that there is a lot more to come after the initial introduction of the program. After all, no one would lose their insurance until a plan is set up that they could be moved to. Why wouldn’t they be able to move directly into the government plan at that point? There are only two possible ways to understand this answer: 1. The President is prepared to introduce a health plan that is not entirely workable, and then work out the bugs on-the-fly until it is “fully set up”; or 2. The President intends for the initial introduction of the plan to be only the first step in a broader, more comprehensive approach—a “fully” set up plan.
The first possible answer is very scary, but it seems to me that the second understanding of his words is more likely. His next slip points to this. He says, “And I would be concerned about the potential destructiveness of that kind of transition.” Why would he say that he would be concerned about “that kind of transition”? Is there a “kind of” transition that he wouldn’t be concerned about? Like one that takes longer and is less “disruptive”? Probably so. It seems clear that the President is open to the idea of a transition from private health insurance to a single-payer plan—as long as it is the right “kind of transition.”
Why am I being so sensitive to the President’s language? Because I know what he has said in the past about his desire to have a single-payer health care system in this country. Here are his own words: “I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health care plan…That’s what I’d like to see.” And on the transition issue, he said this, “I don’t think we’re going to be able to eliminate employer coverage immediately, there’s going to be potentially some transition process.” You can see him say it himself on this Youtube clip, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-bY92mcOdk.
So, what did the President mean when he said, “I'm not promoting a single-payer plan”? He meant that “right now” he isn’t promoting a single-payer health care plan. Right now, he’s promoting this “public option” plan. The single-payer step will come later. He isn’t lying when he says that. He just isn’t telling you everything he has planned. But if you listen to him carefully, you can hear the future.
We know where the President wants to take the country with his health care reform, and we have seen what the liberals in Congress want to do. They are on the same page—a single-payer universal health care plan.
The first possible answer is very scary, but it seems to me that the second understanding of his words is more likely. His next slip points to this. He says, “And I would be concerned about the potential destructiveness of that kind of transition.” Why would he say that he would be concerned about “that kind of transition”? Is there a “kind of” transition that he wouldn’t be concerned about? Like one that takes longer and is less “disruptive”? Probably so. It seems clear that the President is open to the idea of a transition from private health insurance to a single-payer plan—as long as it is the right “kind of transition.”
Why am I being so sensitive to the President’s language? Because I know what he has said in the past about his desire to have a single-payer health care system in this country. Here are his own words: “I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health care plan…That’s what I’d like to see.” And on the transition issue, he said this, “I don’t think we’re going to be able to eliminate employer coverage immediately, there’s going to be potentially some transition process.” You can see him say it himself on this Youtube clip, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-bY92mcOdk.
So, what did the President mean when he said, “I'm not promoting a single-payer plan”? He meant that “right now” he isn’t promoting a single-payer health care plan. Right now, he’s promoting this “public option” plan. The single-payer step will come later. He isn’t lying when he says that. He just isn’t telling you everything he has planned. But if you listen to him carefully, you can hear the future.
We know where the President wants to take the country with his health care reform, and we have seen what the liberals in Congress want to do. They are on the same page—a single-payer universal health care plan.
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