You'd think it would be impossible for a Democrat these days to come with a plan for extending government's reach that hasn't been discussed to death already. So I have to give John Edwards credit. He is scaring the bejeebers out of me:
TIPTON, Iowa - — Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said on Sunday that his universal health care proposal would require that Americans go to the doctor for preventive care.
"It requires that everybody be covered. It requires that everybody get preventive care," he told a crowd sitting in lawn chairs in front of the Cedar County Courthouse. "If you are going to be in the system, you can't choose not to go to the doctor for 20 years. You have to go in and be checked and make sure that you are OK."
[. . .]
Edwards said his mandatory health care plan would cover preventive, chronic and long-term health care. The plan would include mental health care as well as dental and vision coverage for all Americans.
"The whole idea is a continuum of care, basically from birth to death," he said.
He actually came right out and said it -- "from birth to death." Other Democrats have proposed a government takeover of health-care delivery. Edwards is audacious enough to want to take over the patient end to -- we'd all have to join in this plan, which would then require us to go to the doctor periodically. Not a single thing about our own health care -- from birth to death -- would be under our control.
Comments
Eek! Regular check ups! The bastard! How dare he try to keep costs down. It's our god given right as Americans to do without regular check ups . . . or adequate health care generally.
You seem to be willing to take the "if it's good, it must be a government decree" doctrine to its absolute extreme. Your faith is touching, and I wish you well.
Doug, it would also reduce injuries and keep costs down if all kids gym shoes were tied properly.
sheesh....
Its ciminal that we have the most expensive health care system in the world yet 1/5 of the population goes uninsured and another 1/5 are underinsured. There is simply no justification for this no matter how hard the insurance and pharma lobbies and neoconservatives try. For too long the focus has not been on preventive care that that is far less costly than getting in when the diseases become chronic. Basically we already do have a "socialized sytem" one that benefits big insurance and big medical at the expense of the taxpayer and citizen
Can you imagine how crowded the waiting rooms would be if we all were required to go the doctor?
It takes two weeks now to get an appointment.
I wonder how the would force some people to go?
Send your letter of thanks for today's HMO and health insurance debacle to : Senator Edward Kennedy (D) Massachussetts. He authored the bill for the HMO Medicine system he now rails against.
Oh, and AJ....If each of you so-inclined helpful liberals would take an "uninsured" American to YOUR Doctor, maybe that would solve the dilemma.