If Congress Can't Pass Health Reform, Yank Their Coverage

Pols should be punished for 'longstanding and grievous breach of responsibility: Kristof
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 8, 2009 7:30 AM CDT
If Congress Can't Pass Health Reform, Yank Their Coverage
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, and ranking Republican Charles Grassley prepare for the committee's continuing health care markup, Oct. 1, 2009.   (AP Photo/Harry Hamburg)

Nicholas Kristof has a modest proposal for lawmakers who vote down health care reform. If universal coverage is defeated, he writes, let’s take away the insurance of 15% of Congress, at random, and cut benefits to an inadequate level for another 8%. “I wouldn’t wish the trauma of losing health insurance on anyone,” writes Kristof in the New York Times, but their failure to ensure universal care “is such a longstanding and grievous breach of their responsibility that they deserve it.”

It’s a question of priorities; we were willing to spend $2.4 trillion on Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy, but not $1 trillion on reform. A recent study found that 45,000 Americans die each year because they lack insurance. That’s a 9/11 every three weeks. That’s “not simply unwise and unfortunate," he says. "It is also wrong—a moral blot on a great nation.” (More Nicholas Kristof stories.)

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