Via Shadowfax comes our brilliant president speaking about health care reform (since his domestic agenda has been so rigorous as of late, I guess):

Let me talk about health care, since it’s fresh on my mind. The objective has got to be to make sure America is the best place in the world to get health care, that we’re the most innovative country, that we encourage doctors to stay in practice, that we are robust in the funding of research, and that patients get good, quality care at a reasonable cost.

That’s funny, I’m pretty sure your administration proposed budget cuts to the NIH for the first time since 1970, Mr. President. Doesn’t sound like robust research to me. And patients on average get great care, but “reasonable cost?” $5500 for some salt water, 2 anti-nausea drugs, and an ER visit? You’ve gotta be joking.

The immediate goal is to make sure there are more people on private insurance plans. I mean, people have access to health care in America. After all, you just go to an emergency room. The question is, will we be wise about how we pay for health care. I believe the best way to do so is to enable more people to have private insurance. And the reason I emphasize private insurance, the best health care plan — the best health care policy is one that emphasizes private health. In other words, the opposite of that would be government control of health care.

Like Shadowfax said–sounds like a brilliant health care plan: “you just go to an emergency room!” And what the hell is “private health?” The best health care policy is one that emphasizes “private health?” I think, by definition, all individual health is “private health,” cause it’s reserved for each individual person. Oh, and, Mr. Bush? The federal government already pays for 60% of health care costs, and it’s been doing that for awhile now. You’re a little late.

And there’s a debate in Washington, D.C. over this. It’s going to be manifested here shortly by whether or not we ought to expand what’s called S-CHIP. S-CHIP is a program designed to help poor children get insurance. I’m for it. It came in when I was the governor of Texas; I supported that. But now there are plans to expand S-CHIP to include families — some proposals are families making up to $80,000 a year. In other words, the program is going beyond the initial intent of helping poor children. It’s now aiming at encouraging more people to get on government health care. That’s what that is. It’s a way to encourage people to transfer from the private sector to government health care plans.

That’s funny, While you were governor, you supported SCHIP so much that Texas ranked last among all 50 states in SCHIP enrollment. Great job! And when your family of four applies for private health insurance, but a member of their family is sick or has a “pre-existing condition,” the yearly cost can be more than $10,000 easily–or you can just not get offered a plan, either, fully rejected. Government health care plans take care of your entire health, not just things that private plans choose to care for.

My position is, we ought to help the poor — and we do, through Medicaid. My position is, we ought to have a modern medical system for the seniors — and we do, through Medicare. But I strongly object to the government providing incentives for people to leave private medicine, private health care to the public sector. And I think it’s wrong and I think it’s a mistake. And therefore, I will resist Congress’s attempt — (applause) — I’ll resist Congress’s attempt to federalize medicine.

Medicare and Medicaid primarily pay private medicine for health care–that is, private doctors and hospitals, so I really have no idea what you’re talking about. (But my guess is that you don’t really know, either.)

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