Stopping Hillarycare

Dick Morris thinks President Bush should sign the Democrat's SCHIP bill.

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Signing it will remove the major argument for "Hillarycare." Sen. Clinton claims that her program is a narrowly tailored measure to cover the people now living in the U.S. who do not have health insurance. She will say that she'll leave the rest of us alone. But once these new folks, a third of them illegal immigrants, start using our health facilities, the sharp rise in demand will occasion an equally steep increase in prices. Health care rationing will be the inevitable result. Under the socialized medicine program that will follow, Americans, particularly the elderly, would be denied medical care because a federal bureaucrat decides others need it more.

Once she doesn't have the uninsured children to talk about, Hillary will be groping for arguments for her health care overhaul. Bush should make his move and take the kids out of the equation. Then the uninsured Americans about whom Hillary will try to generate national angst will be one-third illegal immigrants, one-third Medicaid eligible families who just don't enroll until they need medical care, and 10 to 20 million adults making more than $60,000 or childless people making $20,000 to $60,000.

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The counter argument is the camel's nose under the tent. It is based on the premise that Democrats will not be content with an incremental step. Indeed, they have indicated that the incremental approach is their strategy after losing the death star approach in 1994. Morris seems to think that strategic retreat on SCHIP will stop the advance. History suggest otherwise.