My State Senator on... health care!

A while back I sent my state senator, George C. Runner, Jr., an email expressing my support for SB 840, a public health care initiative. I got a very long response in reply that included his criticisms of the initiative, some of which follows:

This system produces overwhelming cost-overruns that simultaneously result in tax increases and rationed care. Consumers lose choices in care providers and treatment options as governments reduce consumers' ability to drive costs by taking away options. It results in fewer people pursuing medical careers as doctors and nurses lose the financial compensation provided by the private market, the freedom to work as they choose and are condemned to work in government medical clinics. It results in rationed care, especially for the aged and disabled, that we see has devolved in the Netherlands to euthanasia for the aged and severely ill or disabled infants. Its price caps and disincentives to investment essentially stops the clock on private innovations and development of new treatments and drug therapies in California.

Besides objecting on purely ideological grounds, the practical ramifications of such socialized healthcare have been disastrous everywhere it has been implemented.

This is obviously a man who hears the cries of suffering from all over Canada, Europe, and the other areas that have socialized medicine. And he's also one who wants to preserve end-life spending sprees. Bright fellow.