Quote for the day

"All Randroids and Reaganatics start any discussion of health care reform.....with a hushed and reverential invocation of the free market followed by a deep genuflection and a solemn kiss of the ring on the 'invisible hand' of the market. Neither group appears to have any awareness that it was the failure of the free market with respect to elder health care that was both the policy and politics behind the adoption of Medicare. The elderly are a high risk population that require substantially more health care than younger populations. Free-market insurers are unwilling to insure these populations at all or to insure them only at premiums that equal or exceed the anticipated cost of care. As a result, prior to the adoption of Medicare, fewer than half of retirees had any health insurance. So the government had little choice but to take over or, eek!, 'socialize' the task of providing a program that would reimburse the elderly for health care costs. If we really want to talk about who wants to kill Grandma, it’s not the people advoca-ting government reimbursement of Grandma’s medical expenses. It’s the tiresome and tireless free market idealogues who, if given their way, would offer nothing but an “invisible hand,” this time carrying a knife, to handle Grandma’s needs for medical care."

"Tintin" at Sadly No