only problem with state run free health

The Only Problem With State Run Free Health Care

With the Democrats largely seeking to bury or evade Iraq as an issue

(and using the NIE as an excuse to evade the Iranian threat as well),

they will make a concerted attempt to turn the 2008 election into a

contest purely over domestic issues--what David Brooks is already

calling "a postwar election."

So what domestic issue will be the centerpiece of the Democratic

campaign? The answer is likely to be socialized medicine, with all

candidates proposing some form of major incremental step toward a

government takeover of health care.

This has already begun on the state level, most prominently under two

nominally Republican governors: the system passed in Massachusetts

under Mitt Romney, and the system being proposed in California by

Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Fortunately, however, these attempts to socialize medicine at the

state level are running into major problems. Free health care, it

turns out, has to be paid for by someone, and most recent proposals

are too obvious in how they make us pay for it: imposing a potentially

unlimited requirement on the individual to purchase a

government-dictated health insurance policy. (According to the New

York Sun article below, this obviously dreadful idea was first hatched

by a conservative think tank.)

This has caused Governor Schwarzenegger's plan to run into resistance

from both the left and the right, and the California plan is viewed as

a test case for the political prospects of any similar scheme on the

national level.

"Health Insurance Issue Sparks Fight Among Democrats, Bogs Down

Schwarzenegger," Josh Gerstein, New York Sun, December 13 The issue of

requiring individuals to purchase health insurance is triggering an

escalating fight between the top contenders for the Democratic

presidential nomination even as the same question is bogging down

Governor Schwarzenegger's plan to make sure all Californians are

insured....

In the presidential race, Senator Clinton's campaign and a variety of

prominent commentators have gone after Senator Obama of Illinois for

not including a so-called individual mandate in his plan to overhaul

health care coverage. However, in California, some labor unions and

liberal groups are attacking Mr. Schwarzenegger precisely because his

plan would force individuals to purchase insurance, while making no

promises about what that insurance would cost.

"If you're not limiting what private insurers can charge, then that

is, in the end, an unlimited burden on individuals," Ms. Balber said.

She said such a mandate, without regulation of premiums, could also be

a bonanza for private health insurance providers....

A policy analyst for the California Labor Federation, Emily Clayton,

said the individual mandate was the key sticking point in discussions

over Mr. Schwarzenegger's plan. "It's the biggest problem," she

said....

A conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation, and a former

Republican speaker of the house, Newt Gingrich, were early proponents

of requiring individuals to purchase health insurance. However, in the

current election cycle, Republican presidential candidates have

shunned the idea. Even the former governor of Massachusetts, Mitt

Romney, who once touted an individual mandate as part of his state's

health reforms, has soured on it.

For his part, Mr. Schwarzenegger is now dealing with a new headache.

The state's estimated budget deficit has unexpectedly ballooned to $14

billion.

"Schwarzenegger has no money," Mr. Cutler observed. "He's got to