Facts, common sense and public opinion are arrayed solidly against ObamaCare socialized medicine, even as Democrats in Congress rush toward possible passage of the legislation this weekend.
So in the absence of sound policy reasons to impose the trillion-dollar-plus medical takeover, Democrats are relying heavily and sometimes dishonestly on tales of individual woe under the existing system.
One of those tales is the story of Natoma Canfield of Ohio. The president and fellow Democrats point to Ms. Canfield, who has cancer, as a symbol of all that is wrong with medical care as it stands today.
“Natoma Canfield … made a decision to give up her health care to keep her house, a gamble that she’s lost,” said Robert Gibbs, Mr. Obama’s press secretary. The president, too, used Ms. Canfield’s case as a justification for passing ObamaCare.
We certainly sympathize with Ms. Canfield’s condition, but as it turns out, her situation is not a reason to pass ObamaCare but to oppose it.
At her income level, she is eligible both for the federally funded Medicaid program for the poor and for charitable aid. What’s more, the Ohio hospital that is treating her has said it has no plan to place a lien on her house or to withhold treatment based on whether she can pay. In fact, the hospital has taken pains to help Ms. Canfield secure the aid for which she is eligible.
There are real cost problems with medical care as it is practiced today. But ObamaCare would worsen, rather than relieve, those problems. Congress should start over and craft real reforms that would address the problems — and it should do so without resorting to misleading claims about the existing system.