They Do Not Get it; 9-16-11, Macon Telegraph

Note: The last set of GOP Presidential candidates were clueless on health care reform. Romney would have won the election and many more states if he would have advocated for Medicare for All.

They Do Not Get it; 9-16-11, Macon Telegraph

As a Republican retired health care executive, I listened with interest to the debate. I was especially concerned with the health care reform question.
What I heard, ideological free market rigidity, was disconcerting.
If the free market was going to take care of access issues, it would have already done so, Mr. Cain. Mr. Perry, you seem to be OK with over a quarter of all Texans being uninsured. Mr. Romney, you are running as fast as you can from Romneycare, although it has reduced the uninsured to 4% in Massachusetts. Ms. Bachman, trying to tar Obamacare as a socialist plot is getting old. 
The fact is that there is by definition only one socialist health care program (i.e. care delivered by the Federal government) in the U.S., the VA. My Republican friends all seem to like it and many use it.
Further, there already is a national health insurance program in America. But, it starts at 65 instead of covering everyone as it does in most other developed nations. It is called Medicare.
To get our businesses competitive and reduce the deficit, we need to copy what other developed nations (with per capita health costs that are half ours) have done: cover everyone and hold down costs via regulatory authority. Too bad none of the candidates understand this fact.