ObamaCare for all ....

Jerry Pournelle (one of my favorite writers & bloggers) has posted some comments about our health care "dilemma" & BHO's address to congress last night. Here are a few excerpts:

"The most impressive thing I heard in Obama's speech last night was that we can save $600 billion by eliminating fraud and waste. It was my impression that the savings was in Medicare alone. Now that would be worth doing! A hundred billion here, a hundred billion there, and pretty soon it adds up to real money. If the government can eliminated $600 billion -- considerably more than the annual budget back in Johnson days -- then that's exciting, and we ought to get on with it. Surely that can be done without adding millions to the list of people who get their doctor bills paid by someone else?

Nowhere did anyone address the fundamental question: under what principle do we all acquire a right to health care paid by someone else, and under what principle do those who have to pay acquire the obligation? Whatever principle that is must have some other consequences, and I'd like to know what those are. It's a pretty fundamental change in our political philosophy. Does it mean that everyone is entitled to anything that someone else can afford? It probably doesn't apply to health care alone. Where does this right stop? Does it apply to cosmetic surgery for burn victims? Those with genetic malformations? Aging skin sag? Breast implants? I don't ask these questions frivolously: since I don't know what principle is being applied to infer that everyone is entitled to health care whether they can afford it or not, it's hard to see what else that principle implies. There must be other implications, but what are they?

In any event I would like to know the principle under which everyone is entitled to health care whether they can afford it or not, and how much health care each person is entitled to without paying for it. It is clearly not simple Christian charity (which would be illegal anyway) since it will not, at least in theory, apply to illegal aliens. Of course it will apply to illegals, as Congressman Wilson implied when he shouted "You Lie!" to Mr. Obama during his speech: Democrats in committee carefully removed all the provisions for actually checking on the status of those making use of the new health care laws. We have a program (SAVE) that is in use in about 40 Federal Programs to prevent illegal aliens from getting their benefits; that was explicitly taken out of the qualifications for getting health care insurance under the bill. It is sufficient to say (in any language you care to use) "I was born in the USA" and they have to enroll you. If you can't check eligibility then in practice everyone is eligible. So it goes."

Selah...