Redstate

Posted at 9:40pm on Mar. 6, 2008 Sen. Ron Wyden leads bi(tri?)partisan group of 5 Ds, 6 Rs, 1 I in fighting for same old government-controlled health care

Take a bow, Sens. Alexander, Grassley, Crapo, Bennett, Coleman, Gregg, Wyden, Carper, Landrieu, B. Nelson, Stabenow, and Lieberman

By Jeff Emanuel

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), the primary sponsor of bipartisan Senate Bill 334 (the “Healthy Americans Act”), has spent the last few days on the stumping for his plan to “fix” America’s health care system.

Burdened with the mouthful of a title "A bill to provide affordable, guaranteed private health coverage that will make Americans healthier and can never be taken away,” S. 334 includes an ‘individual mandate,’ or legal requirement that every individual purchase at least a minimum amount of coverage, though enforcement is left up to the States, which are directed to come up with a means of ensuring that the uninsured are penalized.

Interestingly, Sen. Wyden uses this ‘individual mandate’ portion of the bill to present an olive branch (or a level of government-backed legitimacy) to practitioners and recipients of holistic and spiritual medicine, as S. 334 officially excuses people who are “opposed to health plan coverage for religious reasons, including an individual who declines health plan coverage due to a reliance on healing using spiritual means through prayer alone” from compliance with the mandate.

Individual states are also allowed to determine whether complying with this mandate would constitute a “hardship” for impoverished families and individuals, and to make allowance for them.

Read on.

Posted in bipartisanship | Government-run health care | Health care | Nanny-Statism | Policy | RINOs — Comments (8)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 1:08am on Mar. 6, 2008 Heading into the 2008 election and beyond, the GOP must lead on health care

By Jeff Emanuel

If the Republican Party is to repair and reclaim its tarnished brand as the party of individual rights and responsibility, of limited government, and of real solutions for the American people, one issue on which the GOP must lead is health care.

The mantra of “50 million (and growing) uninsured Americans,” has become part of every Democrat politician's standard rhetoric. The Left, and many members of the media, are treating so-called "universal health coverage" as though it is (a) the correct solution to the U.S.’s health care woes, (b) a foregone conclusion, and (c) simply a matter of timing an detail at this point. Further, several polls show that a significant portion of the American population views the current health care situation both as an important issue, and as one which should be further intervened in, and regulated by, government.

This trend toward support of the Democrat platform on health care means that Republicans must eschew sitting idly by in favor of coming up with coherent, workable response to the Left on health care -- lest, through their inaction, they allow the party of government intervention to permanently own the issue.

Read on.

Posted in Economics | Health care | Nanny-Statism | Policy | Republicans | strategery — Comments (63) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 3:03pm on Dec. 22, 2007 I'm Against Nanny-State Ideas . . .

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

No matter what party they come from. It's one thing to have a ratings system but are we really going to argue in favor of locking up producers of video games that are considered too violent? Desperation, thy name is "Mitt."