It's Not A Matter Of What, But Of Who

We already know what the right wing squawk brigades position towards universal healthcare is. Namely, they don't like it. They're deathly afraid of it. One of their favorite talking points to try to prevent it, is that the government would tell you what you can and cannot eat, drink, smoke, or anything else. This is illustrated in a post done by McIlheran on October 22nd:

One more reason to put the government in charge of everyone's health: You get nifty monitoring like in Britain, where authorities are going to be weighing children in school and sending warning letters to parents of kids who are too fat.

It's not Big Brother who's watching you. It's Big Nurse, actually. And wouldn't that make you feel comforted, when the people who run the doctors also run the prosecutors, the police, the courts and the child-protective services?

In another post that McIlheran wrote yesterday, he talks of Minnesota, where they are also trying to enact a form of universal healthcare. He cites a person named Katherine Kersten, and repeats some of her suggestions that should be done instead of offering healthcare to everyone. He calls them "just the usual good economics":

Permit insurers and employers to charge employees different premiums based on lifestyle choices. Obesity is pervasive, and is linked to a host of costly health problems. Yet companies charge the same premium to the 300-pound guy who smokes three packs a day as to the guy in the next office who eats a decent diet. If we permit companies to charge overweight people and smokers a premium rate commensurate with their increased risks, we’ll likely see Minnesotans slim down and toss those Camels.

So, you see, the right is not against healthcare costs going up. Nor are they concerned with the use of financial sanctions to promote things like stopping smoking or healthier diets. Good heavens, no.

They just want to make sure that your money goes to the right place. After all, how can we on the hate left be so selfish as to want everyone to get healthcare, when that would put those poor, poor mulit-millionaire Big Insurance CEOs on the brink of starvation.