Allen spells out proposals to replace health care reform but privatization is long-term aim

During a “back-and-forth conversation” with elderly citizens at the Friendship Retirement Community in Roanoke, Republican U.S. Senate candidate George Allen discussed entitlement programs, health care, and Vitamin B12 shots…[1]Allen’s trip to Roanoke also included a closed meeting with the Business Leadership Council. No meeting was reported between Allen and leadership from civil service unions or the like.

50 attendees showed up to hear Allen propose a number of measures he’d support to replace the health care reform law if it’s overturned by Congress: the use of a voucher-like program for individuals without health insurance to finance “necessary” medical expenses; a health care savings account that would cover “major” medical expenses and that will follow people if they switch jobs or careers.[2] A number of additional proposals were given, some of which seemed like good policies on the surface. 

As Brandi Hoffine, spokeswoman for Tim Kaine, pointed out, however, “Virginia seniors can’t trust George Allen to safeguard their retirement security after he voted to shift Social Security dollars to private accounts…, and endorsed an all-cuts approach to the budget that would slash funding for vital programs like Medicare.”

Allen is far from the only conservative politician who has pushed for the privatization of Social Security or the death of Medicare. Missouri Republican Todd Akin recently endorsed a Medicare privatization plan,[3] and conservatives in the U.S. Congress also “demanded” that Medicare privatization be put on the table last year.[4]

But even some of the most “market-minded” Americans have conceded that Medicare is a program worth preserving in the public sphere.[5]

Before politicians like George Allen can even begin calling for fundamental reforms to Medicare, incremental fixes should be offered. The fact that conservatives like Allen would just as soon throw the baby out with the bath water is a perfect illustration of the ideological policy tunnel-vision that these individuals look through.

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[1] http://www.roanoke.com/politics/wb/312544

[2] http://www.roanoke.com/politics/wb/312544

[3] http://missouridems.org/content/day-1-akin-endorses-conservative-medicare-privatization-scheme-brunner-and-steelman-silent

[4] http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/17/us-privatize-medicare-idUSTRE7AG2FT20111117

[5] http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/about/Crossroads/06_13_03.html