by David Limbaugh
Though I don't belong to the "Obama is a genius" school, I know he's
smart enough to realize that insurance company profits are but a
fraction of rising health care costs and that it's grossly misleading
to make insurers the primary villains. This is simply Chicago politics
writ large in a last-gasp effort to enslave us with government health
care.
Obama is also dishonest in portraying his still-unwritten
plan as middle-of-the-road between the extreme position of those who
want socialized medicine and the extreme position of those who want to
relax all regulations on the health insurance industry and just pass
reforms in "baby steps."
First, he is intentionally mischaracterizing the Republicans'
position. They don't advocate baby steps, but a series of market
reforms that would not entail restructuring the entire system under
government control.
Nor do they want to relax all regulations on insurance
companies. They do want to remove some of the coverage mandates, not
for the purpose of helping insurers, but to benefit consumers, who
ultimately would have to bear the costs of elective procedures for
others. Republicans also want to relax arbitrary laws preventing
consumers from buying across state lines.
Further, Obama is misrepresenting his own plan as centrist
and a composite of Democratic and Republican ideas. It is the last
thing from centrist. His plan contemplates -- and would eventuate in --
full-blown government control, which is also deliberate and which he's
on record advocating.
http://townhall.com/columnists/DavidLimbaugh/2010/03/09/obama_vs_insurers_and_the_people,_part_2?page=2