Kent Conrad Is Still Trying To Claim That Obamacare Isn’t A Government Take Over Of Health Care

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Written By:
Rob Port

Aug 25, 2012
1:08pm

The ploy among North Dakota Democrats to deal with their Obamacare problem is to suggest that the entirety of that terrible policy (many parts of which they claim to dislike) must be upheld because of a small provision addressing Medicare reimbursements here in North Dakota.

Forget that Medicare is such a mess that it necessitates reforms of its own that will more than likely supersede the so-called “Frontier Amendment,” that’s their story and they are sticking to it.

Heidi Heitkamp has made this argument, and now Senator Kent “VIP Loans” Conrad is making it as well.

But more interesting than that gambit is that Conrad continues to insist that Obamacare wasn’t a government take over of health care:

In his remarks, Conrad said the health reform law is not a government takeover of health care, since it preserves private health insurance, and said the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected it will save $1.3 trillion over 20 years.

Obamacare requires that every health insurance policy sold in America be approved by the government. Thus, the government decides what is covered and what is not covered. What’s more, all Americans are required to buy these government-approved health insurance plans or face a heavy fine (or tax, depending on whether or not you happen to be a Supreme Court justice looking to rationalize upholding unconstitutional law).

Conrad is right in that we won’t be buying our health insurance, or our health care, directly from the government. But we will be buying health insurance in a “private” insurance market that is controlled, top to bottom, by the government.

That’s a government take over.