Friday, July 31, 2009

Obama and Health Care

"Here's a guarantee that I've made: If you have insurance that you like, then you will be able to keep that insurance. If you've got a doctor that you like, you will be able to keep your doctor."

This is an exact quote from President Obama's AARP meeting on Tuesday. The transcript is here. But a transcript shouldn't be necessary. The president has made the same detailed and absolute assurance on a half dozen occasions in the past few weeks. Only once was he pressed on it, by ABC's increasingly head-and-shoulders-above-the-rest-of-the-White-House-correspondents Jake Tapper, and the president deflected the question and quickly moved on.

The president has to flee from questions about these twin assurances that he routinely gives because they are not true. Have never been true. Cannot be made true.

And it isn't known yet what basic services the government plan will cover. Rationing systems such as those of Canada, Great Britain and Sweden deny many forms of treatment to elderly patients that private American insurance covers.

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