Say Anything Blog

Which is just the latest in liberal efforts to demonize anyone opposed to their take over of health care in America.  Obama suggested that doctors are performing unnecessary procedures just to collect money.  Now Pelosi is calling private health insurance companies “immoral” and “villains.”

Because they aren’t in favor of handing control of health care over to people like Pelosi.

This vicious rhetoric on health care is indicative of just how desperate the Democrats are getting on the issue.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday ramped up her criticism of insurance companies, accusing them of unethical behavior and working to kill a plan to create a new government-run health plan.

“It’s almost immoral what they are doing,” Pelosi said to reporters, referring to insurance companies. “Of course they’ve been immoral all along in how they have treated the people that they insure,” she said, adding, “They are the villains. They have been part of the problem in a major way. They are doing everything in their power to stop a public option from happening.”

There are plenty of horror stories about people getting taken to the cleaner by private sector HMO’s and the like.  And I’ll not defend that sort of behavior, but I will point out that it is what happens when you ask someone else to take on the responsibility of paying for all or even just part of your health care.

Because let’s face it.  Unless you become fabulously rich you’re probably never going to be in a situation where you can get all the health care you want without worrying about the cost.  There is going to be a limit on how much health care you can get, and the only question is how that limit is set.  Should it be set by our employer’s health insurance company?  Should it be set by the government?  Should it be set based on how much health care you can afford?

I think the optimal situation is for each individual to be responsible for their own health care.  That way any limitations on access are self-imposed.  Because for all the heated rhetoric from people like Nancy Pelosi about how “villainous” and “immoral” private health insurance providers are, how about the horror stories that come from the Medicare and Medicaid system?  How about the horror stories from government-run health care systems like those in Canada and Great Britain?  Are those some how less immoral and villainous than the HMO stories?

Having someone else involved in your health care decisions really stinks, whether it’s an HMO or some government bureaucrat.  But at least in a private system you have the option of switching insurance/health care providers.  And if we could move away from employer-based plans to more plans that are owned by the individual we’d see less interference in health care from third parties.

Pelosi just wants to trade one villain (HMO’s) for another (the government) when we should be looking at empowering citizens to get their own health care.