Tropes of the Times

The Times recently reported on a healthcare forum held by Democratic candidates before the SEIU (March 25).  According to the intro paragraph, “Seven Democratic candidates for president promised . . . to guarantee health insurance for all, but they disagreed over how to pay for it and how fast it could be achieved.”

The balance of the story does NOT quote the candidates (other than John Edwards and Bill Richardson) as supporting universal health care, only advocating increments which slowly move in that direction. 

Particularly disingenuous is the paper’s treatment of Hillary Clinton. Referring to the failure of her “proposal for universal coverage in 1994,” she complained that insurance companies were at fault for refusing to cover people with pre-existing conditions, spending alot of money on administration, etc.  However, her proposal then did NOT eliminate insurance companies, but would have channeled all health coverage into 5 mega-insurance firms as reported by the Times during those debates. Indeed, it is doubtful that her plan would have resulted in covering all people, but it was so convoluted that virtually no one understood how it might actually function.

In contrast, the chair of Clinton’s panel that put together the proposal, Ira Magaziner, was quoted then in an interview in the Times as saying that he and others in the group were, of course, in favor of “single-payer” health coverage (ie, the government as insurer–as with Medicare), but the group would not be recommending such an approach because it has been “taken off the table” (presumably by Hillary and Bill).

Such an approach is the one taken by virtually ALL of the other industrialized countries, all of which have universal coverage. It is readily understood by all of their citizens, since it is simple and direct.  The debacle Hillary’s plan led to, as it was torn apart by the industry and could not be readily defended because of its complexity, arguably set back the cause of covering all people in the U.S. by decades.  Somehow, the article in the paper last week indicated none of this.

Trope of the Times:  The “newspaper of record” forgets when it is convenient to do so.