CBS: Universal Health Care a Moral Imperative
CBS's love affair with universal health care, especially the
David acknowledged the program's rapidly spiraling cost, but failed to interview expert critics fo the program, and never addressed the wisdom of shifting responsibility for health care from individuals to the government.
David's story adopted the all-too-familiar approach of focusing on a tragic case of a woman who suffered a “disaster” and had no health insurance. After letting the woman tell her story David introduced the parameters of the Commonwealth Connector program. It was at that point she linked state-mandated health care with morality.
DAVID: It's called the Commonwealth Connector, the first statewide attempt at universal health care. Every resident is required by law to have health insurance. If employers don't provide it, people making over $15,000 a year must pay into a plan or be penalized at tax time. People with incomes under $15,000 are insured at no cost. Executive director Jon Kingsdale calls it a moral imperative.
KINGSDALE: I think we have to do it. I mean, the cost of not covering them in terms of lost productivity and human loss are just tremendous.
Without blinking an eye, David reported that the cost of the
DAVID: But the cost of covering the state's estimated 650,000 uninsured is spiraling upward with no end in sight.
KINGSDALE: What we project for next year is $869 million.
DAVID: So we're talking about close to a billion dollars – in a few years?
KINGSDALE: That's right. Close to a billion dollars in just three years.
Rather than take advantage of this ideal opportunity to incorporate a fiscally conservative critic of the
DAVID: 61-year-old Dianne Cooper Bridges doesn't make much but she makes too much to qualify for free health care.
COOPER BRIDGES: What they did was they took the responsibility of the uninsured and placed the burden on the shoulders of the uninsured themselves that can least afford that burden.
DAVID: Self-employed, Cooper makes about $24,000 a year. Her monthly premium is $100 a month, which she says she can't afford, but if she doesn't pay, she'll be fined $912 at tax time.
COOPER BRIDGES: Then I wind up still uninsured, and I can't pay my bills. It's flawed. It's ridiculous on its face.
KINGSDALE: It's a heavy lift. This reform is based on the principle of shared responsibility.
DAVID: But many like Bridges resent sharing responsibility with people who are paying nothing.
David reported that proponents of the
Kristen Fyfe is senior writer at the Culture and Media Institute, a division of the
