D.D. 02/09/05

Wow. Wow is about all I can say to Governor Phil Bredesen's comment at a Conference on Medicaid. Speaking before the conference in Raleigh, North Carolina, Bredesen said, "The way in which Medicaid pays for services has more in common with a socialist economy than the commonsense economic and business principles that do such a good job allocating resources efficiently in other parts of our American life."



One Medicare "advocate" responded by saying that he "didn't know what Bredesen was smoking" and suggested the the Cold War was over. I guess the advocate didn't understand that Bredesen's criticism was ideological, not temporal. Bredesen also presented some alarming statistics, saying that one study estimates that 22 states can expect to allocate more than half of all new tax revenue in the next five years to Medicaid. Bredesen concluded by saying, "this is not about being hardhearted. It’s a basic truth [that] people value the things they pay for and don’t value what is free." Wow. As a Republican, I don't know whether to be impressed or scared.