 |
..::: NEWS RELEASE
..::: AUGUST 16, 2005
California Medical Organization Denounces Insurance Commissioner's Philosophy
NEWPORT BEACH, CALIFORNIA—Denouncing the California Insurance
Commissioner’s new “report” arguing for government-controlled health
care, including a statewide ban on Health Savings Accounts (HSAs),
Richard E. Ralston, executive director of Americans for Free Choice in
Medicine (AFCM), points out that the state of California’s taxpayers
have been done a serious injustice.
“The only honest feature of the report is in the
opening disclaimer from Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi: “This
report is not a neutral presentation of facts. … This report and the
recommendations contained in it are my views and opinions and those of
my staff” This is Commissioner Garamendi’s way of telling you he is
using your tax dollars to turn the Department of Insurance into his
personal political lobbying organization,” Ralston writes in a
commentary available on AFCM’s Web site (http://www.afcm.org).
“It is clearly the very popularity of HSAs with
consumers that the Commissioner sees as a threat,” Ralston observes,
noting that the Insurance Commissioner’s thesis, issued in an
unprecedented 73-page taxpayer-funded position paper, is that HSAs’ $7
billion a year in tax savings ‘would be spent more effectively if they
were used to help fund a universal health care system.’ Of course, $7
billion would not even be a drop in the bucket for such a system.
“But the principle upon which these government
functionaries base this fatuity”, he argues, “is that government spends
money on health care for everyone “more effectively” than individuals
can for themselves. The history and cost of the massive increase of
government intrusion in health care in the last forty years clearly
demonstrates the absurdity of such an assertion. But as the objective of
the report is a vast increase in government power and government control
of your daily lives, such facts need to be papered over.”
Richard Ralston’s health care commentary has been
published in the Houston Chronicle, San Francisco Chronicle
and the Washington Times.
Americans for Free Choice in Medicine, (AFCM), was
founded in 1993. AFCM educates the public about the principles of
socialized medicine and free market ideas, such as HSAs and tax reform,
and publishes a consumer's guide on its Web site (http://www.afcm.org).
AFCM is the nation's only educational organization based on individual
rights, personal responsibility, and free market ideas in medicine.
# # #
Copyright © 2005 Americans for Free Choice in Medicine. All rights reserved.
For reprint permission, contact AFCM.
|
|
Print Page
E-mail Page