Coulter Raises Questions Charges Lies

More health care lies
Buzz up!By Ann Coulter Friday, September 11, 2009

Only national health care can provide "coverage that will stay with you whether you move, change your job or lose your job" -- as President Obama said in a New York Times op-ed.

The only reason you can't keep -- or often obtain -- health insurance if you move or lose your job now is because of ... government intrusion into the free market.

You will notice that if you move or lose your job, you can obtain car and home insurance, hairdressers, computer technicians, cars, houses, food and every other product and service not heavily regulated by the government.

Federal tax incentives have created a world in which the vast majority of people get health insurance through their employers. Then to really screw ordinary Americans, the tax code punishes people who don't get health insurance through an employer by denying individuals the tax deduction for health insurance that their employers get.

If Democrats really wanted people to be able to purchase health insurance when they move or lose a job as easily as they purchase car or home insurance, they could do it in a one-page bill lifting government controls and allowing interstate commerce in health insurance. This is known as "allowing the free market to operate."

• The "public option" trigger is something other than a national takeover of health care.

Why does the government get to decide when the "trigger" has been met, allowing it to do something terrible to us? Either the government is better at providing goods and services or the free market is -- and I believe the historical record is clear on that. Why do liberals get to avoid having that argument simply by invoking "triggers"?

Why not allow people to buy medical insurance on the free market when a "trigger" is met, such as consumers deciding their health insurance is too expensive? Or how about a trigger allowing us to buy health insurance from Utah-based insurers -- but only when triggered by our own states requiring all insurance companies to cover marriage counseling, drug rehab and shrinks?

Thinking more broadly, how about triggers for paying taxes? Under my "public option" plan, citizens would not have to pay taxes until a trigger kicks in. For example, 95 percent of the Department of Education's output is useful, or at least not actively pernicious.

Also, I think we need triggers for taking over our neighbors' houses. If they don't keep up 95 percent of their lawn -- on the basis of our lawn commission's calculations -- we get to move in. As with Obama's public option trigger, we (in the role of "government") pay nothing. All expenses with the house would continue to be paid by the neighbor (playing "taxpayer").

• National health care will not cover abortions or illegal immigrants.

This appeared in my Aug. 28 column, but I keep seeing Democrats like Howard Dean and Rep. Jan Schakowsky on TV angrily shouting that these are despicable lies. Then why did Democrats vote down amendments that would prohibit coverage for illegals and abortion?

On July 30, a House committee voted against a Republican amendment offered by Rep. Nathan Deal that would have required health care providers to use the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) Program to prevent illegal aliens from receiving government health care services. All Republicans and five Democrats voted for it, but 29 Democrats voted against it, killing the amendment.

On the same day, the committee voted 30-29 against an amendment offered by Republican Joe Pitts explicitly stating that government health care would not cover abortions.

If any liberals sincerely believe that national health care will not cover illegals and abortion, how do they explain the Democrats frantically opposing amendments that would make this explicit?

Ann Coulter, a political analyst and attorney, is a columnist for Human Events.

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