States Tweak Medical Sectors

I am not a fan of the notion that states' rights allows our nation to have fifty "laboratories for democracy" -- when that notion is taken to mean that states can decide to violate individual rights, from which states' rights are properly derived.

The best that can be said for such a state of affairs is that at least one can move to another state to escape if things get particularly bad in one's own state. Many physicians from Massachusetts already do this to escape the partial slavery to which that state holds them. Sadly, it looks like there will soon be fewer places for them to run to.

And so it seems that we are subjecting our nation's physicians to fifty "experiments in "democracy"in this article, which discusses the fact that individual states are, at least prima facie experimenting with different solutions to the government-created health care crisis.

Last week, one day apart, two governors took dramatic steps that could crystallize a healthcare debate developing in the states -- even as Washington mostly averts its eyes from the problems of declining access and rising costs.

On Tuesday, Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed legislation making Illinois the first state to guarantee all children access to health insurance.

The next day, Republican Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina asked the federal government for permission to shift [link added] responsibility for providing health coverage for the state's poorest citizens primarily to private insurance companies.

These divergent initiatives signal an escalating competition to develop models for coping with the slow-motion crisis in healthcare.

Several Democratic-leaning states are rallying around plans to ensure universal coverage for children as a first step toward expanding access for adults.

Before we get too excited about the program in South Carolina being a "step in the right direction" (which might be arguable), note that it is not a repeal of its state insurance program, but an attempt to reform it. The basic premise of socialism remains unchallenged. In the meantime, our republic marches towards socialism piecemeal.

To paraphrase what I recall as an old Soviet joke, South Carolina is standing at the edge of a precipice, and Illinois is about to take a great leap forward.

-- CAV