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No, I'm not making that up. Well-off Senator John Sununu, recipient of one of the finest health care plans in the country, actually had the nerve to say that.
Sununu said business leaders would be better off putting their energy elsewhere. For starters, "if there was something that we could do about it that were quick or easy, it would be done," he said, predicting only marginal policy changes. "There is no solution" anytime soon, he said.
Get used to it, filthy rabble. There's no solution. I'm the one in charge of writing the laws, but I'm not going to bother. Try not to get sick.
If there's a glimmer of hope, it will come from open markets, said Sununu, who broke with the White House in 2003 to vote against the Medicare prescription drug bill because it restricted price competition.
Health care "is so darn expensive," he said, "because it's worth it."
Ahh, yes, the problem is really that the markets just aren't open enough. That's why so many millions go without. Too many regulations from big government. And too bad for the small businesses going under due to skyrocketing costs.
What a jerk. The campaign against Sununu begins today.
Just so we're all clear here, here's what Johnny's laissez-faire free market ideology has gotten us so far. From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:
Data released today by the Census Bureau show that the number of uninsured Americans stood at a record 46.6 million in 2005, with 15.9 percent of Americans lacking health coverage. "The number of uninsured Americans reached an all-time high in 2005," said Robert Greenstein, executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. "It is sobering that 5.4 million more people lacked health insurance in 2005 than in the recession year of 2001, primarily because of the erosion of employer-based insurance."
Census data show that 46.6 million Americans were uninsured in 2005, an increase of 1.3 million from the number of uninsured in 2004 (45.3 million). The percentage who are uninsured rose from 15.6 percent in 2004 to 15.9 percent in 2005. The number of children who are uninsured rose from 7.9 million in 2004 to 8.3 million in 2005.
"The increase of 360,000 in the number of uninsured children is particularly troublesome," Greenstein said. "Since 1998, the percentage of uninsured children has been dropping steadily, from a high of 15.4 percent to 10.8 percent in 2004. The new Census data show that the uninsured rate among children moved in the wrong direction in 2005, rising to 11.2 percent."
Greenstein warned that matters could get worse. In fiscal year 2007, which begins October 1, children's health insurance programs in 17 states face federal funding shortfalls totaling an estimated $800 million, equal to the cost of covering more than 500,000 low-income children. Congress has known about the shortfall since early February, when the Administration took note of it and proposed a measure to address it, but Congress has so far failed to act.
Yet they rushed back to Congress to play doctor with Terri Schiavo.
