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http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/
Look Who’s Praising Socialized Medicine
MItt Romney’s inability to stay on script is really getting surreal. Today he lavished praise on the Israeli health care system,
which has indeed done a fine job of controlling costs while maintaining
high quality. But as everyone who knows anything about it quickly
pointed out, the secret of Israel’s success is … intense government
involvement. It’s a single-payer system; but unlike Medicare, it also
sets a budget per capita (adjusted for health status), so that the
nonprofit plans are in effect forced to set priorities for treatment and
also negotiate hard over provider payments; think of it as price
controls plus death panels.
Romney’s remarks here fit the classic (Galbraith?) definition of a gaffe: it’s when a politician accidentally tells the truth. The truth in this case is that America’s uniquely privatized system is also uniquely expensive and inefficient; health care is one area in which the public sector does it better than the private sector, and in which free-market doctrine is just a dangerous fantasy.
But of course Romney can’t admit that.
And like everyone else, I’m really beginning to wonder about him. All he has to do to avoid creating a mess while on this trip is to stay bland and talk in generalities; instead, he’s causing international incidents every step of the way. Something is very wrong with what’s going on inside that impressive head of hair.
Romney’s remarks here fit the classic (Galbraith?) definition of a gaffe: it’s when a politician accidentally tells the truth. The truth in this case is that America’s uniquely privatized system is also uniquely expensive and inefficient; health care is one area in which the public sector does it better than the private sector, and in which free-market doctrine is just a dangerous fantasy.
But of course Romney can’t admit that.
And like everyone else, I’m really beginning to wonder about him. All he has to do to avoid creating a mess while on this trip is to stay bland and talk in generalities; instead, he’s causing international incidents every step of the way. Something is very wrong with what’s going on inside that impressive head of hair.
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