Details Matter: A Response to Secretary Sebelius

Stuart Butler / August 04, 2009

Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’s Washington Post op-ed shows that she’s studied the focus groups and tracking polls on health care: Just beat up on health insurance companies enough, and you can get Americans to accept a thousand plus pages of legislation that would do just about anything. And then, make sure to tell Americans not to focus on what the legislation actually says. She flat-out writes: “we can’t let the details distract us…” Just trust us. We are from Washington. We are going to rearrange the entire health system.

If it were a national economy, our health system would be the sixth largest economy in the world – larger than Britain’s entire economy. And remember, the guys who are rewriting our health care are the same people who not only grossly miscalculated the cost of Cash for Clunkers but are now hard-pressed to explain the legislation for that program. And it merely gives away money rather than affecting potentially life-or-death decisions. Ah, but let’s not be bothered with such details when we could be bashing health insurers. (more…)