None Dare Call It (But I Do)

It’s dawned on me in discussing health care that the larger issue I have with left wing approaches is that they’re all about funneling their social programs through private companies. Maybe this is what all that “Third Way” stuff people were bandying about in the Clinton years was all about.

You see, nowadays, the left

• takes the existence of insurance companies for granted
• takes for granted the notion that health care is paid for by insurance companies
• sees the need for a safety net, and therefore
• their big, radical, progressive suggestion basically amounts to funneling the safety-net through insurance companies.

Leaving aside that I still can’t figure out why the left has forgotten about the existence of our already-existing, actual safety-net program (Medicaid), the remarkable thing here is that all of the above is quite a departure from and would almost be viewed as a betrayal of traditional left-wing socialists. The left isn’t supposed to be getting in bed with evil corporations at all. That just increases their profits! The left is supposed to be creating beautiful utopian social programs from scratch, that don’t have the taint of corporatism. You know, like Medicaid.

The ramifications of this sea change are interesting. For one thing, I guess the charge from righty critics that this all amounts to “socialism” is indeed incorrect and unfair. No, the orthodox left-wing approach to health care nowadays isn’t really socialism. It’s more accurately described as economically (little-f) fascist, after all.

About these ads