GOP low information candidate Mike Gallagher out to lunch on Health Care.

Republican candidate in the 8th district against Democrat Tom Nelson, Mike Gallagher, must be drinking what Dumb Ron Johnson is drinking. How can two people get the whole health care issue so wrong and still be taken seriously by voters?

Here's a clip of Gallagher on WPT's Here and Now. I will show just wrong he is about health care, point by point, beneath the video:



1. Gallagher: "It's that relationship between a doctor and their patient. That is at the essence of our health care system."

Me: That is the essence of a single payer plan, where every doctor and every hospital is our doctor and our hospital...where we make our own decisions. But Gallagher isn't pushing that at all. Instead, he's all about putting insurance companies in charge, so they can tell us what doctors and hospitals to see, and what they will or won't cover, and how much. 

2. Gallagher: "ObamaCare is failing because we've inserted a bunch of DC special interests and government bureaucrats into the middle of that relationship." 

Me: Nope, wrong again, except for insurance special interests. Government bureaucrats are not in the middle of anything, but they are there to make sure marketplace enrollees get their subsidies, and that's good. Gallagher would put insurance special interests exclusively in charge, while still having government bureaucrats in place to supplement premiums, but nowhere near the amount in the exchanges. 

3. Gallagher: "We shouldn't force someone to buy health care against their will, particularly when that coverage doesn't actually protect them." 

Me: Wow, not a clue. Those who don't buy insurance end up raising premiums for everyone else, proving Gallagher has never done his research. On the second point "coverage doesn't actually protect them"...is he crazy? The whole Republican argument is based on the idea there's too much coverage, and that people should be able to buy just what they want and can afford. He's confused?

4. Gallagher: "We need to allow farmers, church groups, small businesses to band together in order to create more creative coverage options."

Me: Think about what kind of convoluted nightmare he's talking about. The time, the effort, the paperwork, the legal process of forming that group, adding new membership and keeping track of them, and maintaining and updating their billing system. What a hoop to jump through, just to buy a group policy to lower premiums ever so slightly.