Does Obama Really Want Cost Control, or Just Government Control?

Don't worry, this will be quick. I just want to highlight one more point of hypocrisy on the part of the Obama-style health care reform. I will address other topics in a later blog, as I am rather busy right now, but I just had a quick thought on which I had to write.

About a year ago, if memory serves, some Republicans tried to put forth a health care reform bill. They had tried several times before with the same style of legislation, but health insurance companies have strong lobbies that influence both Dems and Repubs. The basics of the plan that they proposed, which seem reasonable to anyone I have ever posited them to, was that Americans should be able to purchase health insurance from any provider, rather than just be limited to insurers in state. This would allow actual competition and is generally not favored by states because they have a vested interest in keeping the insurers under state regulation (and in keeping insurance lobbying money flowing to state and federal officials). Incidentally, Obama voted against this.

Even the most ardent liberal cannot fail to see that an expanded availability of competition reduces prices (that is the argument they use to favor a government "option"). This is a very common sense and simple reform that does not gain traction for the aforementioned reasons, even though many health reform organizations and doctor organizations favor this.

Of course, this raises the question, "Why would Obama oppose this if he is in favor of controlling costs?" Simple, he is not about controlling costs as much as he is about a government sponsored and run health care plan. He has shown far left tendencies in virtually every aspect of his governance, and this is no exception. It is no surprise that I do not agree with leftist agendas, and I would not have a problem with it if he had been elected on these agendas, because clearly, the will of the people is for that agenda. But he was elected on a centrist platform, and he is doing little to live up to that.

If you want to read more, just check out old bill's sponsored by Shadegg (I think this is the spelling, I am going from memory). He tried the same thing several years in a row (in a Dem controlled congress - guess they didn't really want Health Care Reform all that bad, did they?)