David Goldhill: “A Democrat’s Case For ‘No’ ”

David Goldhill has done it again.


You may recall his article, “How American Health Care Killed My Father,” from the September 2009 issue of The Atlantic.


Now, at HuffingtonPost, he comments on the health care legislation that may soon face a final vote (of some sort) in the House:

[C]ontinuing our Party’s almost unquestioned conflation of health insurance with health care, the central feature of the proposed “reform” is further extension of our flawed insurance‐​based system…[D]espite the Administration’s recent heated rhetoric, most of the entrenched health industry interests are quietly or openly in favor of this bill. Should the bill become law, I suspect we will look back at it as an industry bailout…


How…can Democrats in the depths of a recession support a massive tax increase on middle‐​class job creation…? How…could we justify diverting even more of middle class income to support our broken system of care, further starving families of funds for all their other needs? Most uninsured Americans lack insurance only temporarily; how many of them would trade lesser lifetime job prospects and lower disposable income for the short‐​term retention of health insurance?…


If the legislation had any real prospect of controlling health care spending, would the pharmaceutical industry be funding the “yes” campaign?

As a former Democrat who hung door knockers for Michael Dukakis in 1988, I know the heavy heart with which he writes. Read the whole thing.


Watch the video to hear Goldhill’s story: