BCT Editorial – 3/27/08

This page was last updated on March 27, 2008.

Scare tactics; Editorial; Beaver County Times; March 27, 2008.

This editorial subtitle is “Funding difficulties light-rail proposal will face gives us a glimpse at the future.”

The editorial leads off with, “Opponents of government-run health care spook Americans by telling them it will lead to rationing of services.” The editorial then goes on to say we already have rationing and lists a government-run healthcare program as an example. You can’t make this stuff up.

Of course, the editorial fails to note government’s role in our having higher healthcare prices than we would without government’s interference since World War II. Please read Healthcare for more details.

The editorial also fails to note there’s a distinction between the “rationing” that occurs naturally in a free market and the rationing that would not be necessary had it not been for government involvement in the healthcare market. By the way, did you notice the editorial didn’t offer anything to refute its leadoff sentence?

Finally, is it just me, or does this editorial appear to defend socialized medicine proposals? I ask because the Times editorial board claims it does not support such programs. If the Times really does support something it calls “a market-based approach to health-care reform,” why was it not mentioned in this editorial?