On Ronald Reagan’s birthday, it seemed appropriate to post this 1960s audio of the Gipper’s warning against Medicare mission creep. Here’s the money quote:
One of the traditional methods of imposing statism, or socialism, on a people has been by way of medicine. It’s very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project.
He believed that, once the government got into health care, its influence would metastasize throughout the entire medical delivery system. Here’s the audio:
And Reagan was dead-on. As the WSJ reported a couple of days ago, we have reached the point at which the government controls more than half of the health care system already:
For the first time, government programs next year will account for more than half of all U.S. health-care spending.
How have they done it? By expanding Medicare and Medicaid. State and federal bureaucrats have been steadily moving the ball down the field, by gradually expanding eligibility.
Meanwhile, back at the Reagan birthday party, anyone wishing to re-watch the speech that launched Reagan as a national political figure, as well as the “Tear down this wall” address, Mitch Berg has them here.
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