By Laurence M. Vance
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says health care is a right; President Obama says health care is a right; the 2008 Democratic National Platform says health care is a right. Republicans say that health care is not a right. Right?
Former Republican Senate majority leaders Bill "bought and paid for by the AMA" Frist and Bob "bought and paid for by Big Pharma" Dole support health care reform, but the Republicans in Congress, who have to answer to the voters, are balking.
As much as I deplore with every fiber of my being every facet of the federal government’s intrusion into medicine, health care, and medical insurance I am still not very excited about the Republicans in Congress opposing the Democrats’ health care reform proposals.
Yes, the Republicans in Congress have correctly said that Obamacare is too expensive, too intrusive, and too socialistic. But when the late Sam Francis called the Republican Party the stupid party he was only telling half the story. The Republicans are hypocrites who frequently support legislation that is expensive, intrusive, and socialistic—especially when it is their own.
As we saw when Clinton was president, many Republicans in Congress have started talking, and some have started acting, like the conservative advocates of liberty and less government they claim to be. On the issue of health care, it even seems of late as though congressional Republicans have en masse embraced a real free market for medical care. But have these Republicans suddenly become libertarians, or are they partisan hypocrites without any real allegiance to the Constitution or the principles of liberty and limited government?
For proof that the answer is the latter we can turn to two of the biggest expansions of taxpayer-funded health insurance since the creation of Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s: SCHIP and the Medicare prescription drug benefit.
The State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) is a partnership between federal and state governments that was created in 1997—thanks to a Republican majority in Congress. It provides federally-funded health insurance to children in families with incomes too high to qualify for Medicaid.
Funding for the program was due to expire in March of this year. A bill (H.R. 2) reauthorizing the program and increasing its funding by $32.8 billion was passed in January with hardly any Republican support in the Senate (only 8 votes) and very little in the House (only 40 out of 173 Republicans voted for it).
But it was Republicans that created SCHIP in title IV of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (H.R. 2015). Only 12 Republicans in the Senate at the time and only 32 in the House voted against it. And when SCHIP was up for reauthorization in 2007, it passed the Senate by unanimous consent on the day the bill (S. 2499) was introduced and passed the House the next day with only 3 Republicans voting against it.
Why all the Republican opposition to SCHIP now?
And then there is the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003—thanks again to a Republican majority in Congress. Initially projected to cost about $400 billion (which is still $400 billion too much), it is now projected to cost over a trillion dollars.
This Republican version of health care reform was introduced on June 25, 2003, by the Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert. It was supported by the Republican House Majority leader Tom DeLay. It was supported by the Republican House Majority Whip Roy Blunt. It was support by the Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. It was supported by the Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell. It passed the House (220-215) and the Senate (54-44) in late 2003 with overwhelming Republican support. It was signed into law by the Republican President George Bush on December 8, 2003. As shocking as it sounds, it was Democrats that almost defeated this massive expansion of the welfare state. Only 25 Republicans in the House and 9 Republicans in the Senate voted against health care reform in 2003.
Why all the Republican opposition to health care reform now?
Since conservatives have short memories when it comes to Republicans, let’s take a look at how the Republicans currently in Congress who oppose Obama’s health care reforms supported Bush’s health care reforms back in 2003.
There are 28 Republicans currently in the Senate who were in the Senate back in 2003. Of this number, 24 voted for health care reform in 2003: Lamar Alexander, Bob Bennett, Kit Bond, Sam Brownback, Jim Bunning, Saxby Chambliss, Thad Cochran, Susan Collins, John Cornyn, Mike Crapo, Mike Enzi, Chuck Grassley, Orrin Hatch, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Jim Inhofe, Jon Kyl, Richard Lugar, Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski, Pat Roberts, Jeff Sessions, Richard Shelby, Olympia Snowe, and George Voinovich.
There are 122 Republicans currently in the House who were in the House back in 2003. Of this number, 108 of them voted for health care reform in 2003: Robert Aderholt, Spencer Bachus, Roscoe Bartlett, Joe Barton, Judy Biggert, Gus Bilirakis, Rob Bishop, Marsha Blackburn, Roy Blunt, John Boehner, Jo Bonner, Mary Bono, John Boozman, Kevin Brady, Henry Brown, Virginia Brown-Waite, Michael Burgess, Steve Buyer, Ken Calvert, Dave Camp, Eric Cantor, Shelley Capito, John Carter, Michael Castle, Howard Coble, Tom Cole, Ander Crenshaw, Nathan Deal, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Mario Diaz-Balart, David Dreier, John Duncan, Vernon Ehlers, J. Randy Forbes, Trent Franks, Rodney Frelinghuysen, Elton Gallegly, Jim Gerlach, Phil Gingrey, Bob Goodlatte, Kay Granger, Sam Graves, Jeb Hensarling, Wally Herger, Pete Hoekstra, Duncan Hunter, Darrell Issa, Lynn Jenkins, Sam Johnson, Timothy Johnson, Pete King, Steve King, Jack Kingston, Mark Kirk, John Kline, Tom Latham, Steven LaTourette, Jerry Lewis, John Linder, Frank LoBiondo, Frank Lucas, Donald Manzullo, Thaddeus McCotter, John McHugh, Buck McKeon, John Mica, Candice Miller, Gary Miller, Tim Murphy, Sue Myrick, Randy Neugebauer, Devin Nunes, Thomas Petri, Joseph Pitts, Todd Platts, Adam Putnam, George Radanovich, Dennis Rehberg, Harold Rogers, Mike Rogers (AL), Mike Rogers (MI), Dana Rohrabacher, Heana Ros-Lehitnen, Ed Royce, Paul Ryan, Aaron Schock, F. James Sensenbrenner, Pete Sessions, John Shimkus, Bill Shuster, Mike Simpson, Chris Smith, Lamar Smith, Mark Souder, Cliff Stearns, John Sullivan, Lee Terry, Mac Thornberry, Todd Tiahrt, Pat Tiberi, Michael Turner, Fred Upton, Greg Walden, Ed Whitfield, Joe Wilson, Frank Wolf, C.W. Bill Young, and Don Young.
Republicans are good at opposing health care reform when it is Hillarycare or Obamacare, but not very good when it is Bushcare or Republicancare.
Looking at the Republican track record, it is clear that opposing the Democrats’ health care reform proposals does not mean that one supports a free market for medical care.
Among the Republicans in Congress, only Ron Paul seems to know that government intervention in health care is the problem and not the solution:
Government has been mismanaging medical care for more than 45 years; for every problem it has created it has responded by exponentially expanding the role of government.
It is surreal that in a free country we are talking only about HOW government should fix health care, rather than WHY government should fix health care.
If the Republicans in Congress were really serious about a free market in health insurance and freedom in medical care, then they would support things like medical savings accounts, allowing the use of pre-tax dollars to purchase medical insurance, a 100 percent tax credit for medical insurance and expenses, medical insurance sales across state lines, complete deregulation of the health insurance industry, unrestricted freedom of contract between insurers and insurees and between doctors and patients, the freedom of insurers to discriminate based on the perceived risk of any individual or group, the absolute right of refusal for any preexisting condition, and the repeal of any federal law related to drugs, health insurance, or medical care.
Likewise, they would oppose things like medical licensing laws, mandatory health insurance, the FDA, the Department of Health and Human Services, Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, the National Institutes of Health, the war on drugs, restrictions on the sale of medical devices, federal laboratories, federal funding of community health centers, federal grants for medical research, federal funding of clinical trials, federal funding for family planning, community rating laws, mandated insurance coverages, medical record requirements, federal databases of American’s medical records, import quotas on sugar and corn subsidies that together encourage the use of HFCS, special privileges for the AMA or Big Pharma, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act which forces hospitals to treat anyone regardless of their ability to pay, restrictions on a free market in organs, federal nutrition guidelines, federal vaccination programs, HIV/AIDS prevention initiatives, AIDS funding for Africa, and government mandates, controls, or regulations of any kind on physicians, dentists, nurses, midwives, psychiatrists, psychologists, hospitals, pharmacists, insurance companies, nursing homes, drug companies, or practitioners of holistic, chiropractic, homeopathic, nutritional, or and other form of alternative medicine.
The only reason all of this seems like such a radical prescription is that federal intervention into medicine, health care, and medical insurance is so pervasive, so systemic. It is because the federal leviathan has its tentacles so firmly wrapped around these things that market solutions seem so drastic.
Conservatives who revere the Constitution should support a real free market in health insurance and real freedom in health care. Nowhere does the Constitution authorize the federal government to provide or subsidize health care or have any control over the medical or insurance industries.
We don’t need stronger public-private partnerships. We don’t need to build on the strength on the free market system. We don’t need new health courts. We don’t need these or any other Republican gimmicks that fall short of real freedom or band-aids that cover up the real problem. We need a real free market in health insurance and real freedom in health care.
There is no right to affordable health insurance or taxpayer-funded health care anymore than there is a right to gourmet meals, designer clothing, vacation homes, sports cars, or Super Bowl tickets. No American has the right to health care at the expense of another American’s right to keep the fruit of his labor or spend it as he chooses.
Government interference in the market is always the problem and never the solution.
