Backers of a socialized health care system are eager to point to Canada and European countries as models for how good it can be. Rep. Gary Palmer likes to point to them as evidence for how bad it can be.
From wait times for procedures to refusals to perform procedures altogether, government control, whatever the cost savings, means worse care for the typical consumer, Mr. Palmer says.
“I think there’s 27 cancer drugs that are commonly available in the United States to treat everything from breast cancer to prostate cancer that you can’t get in the U.K.,” he told Washington Times columnist Michael McKenna in an interview. “In the U.K., 46% of all physician-referred joint replacements are declined by the National Health System.”
Even in the U.S., where states run health-care plans, it can happen. He pointed to a case in Oregon where a woman on Medicaid was told an experimental cancer drug wouldn’t be covered, but the state would pay for end-of-life care — including the drug she could take for physician-assisted suicide.
“That’s what you need to understand about government-run health care. At some point, care is going to be rationed and there are going to limits to specialists and to technology,” he said. “If you or I go to the doctor and the doctor says we need an MRI, we’ll get it this afternoon or first thing tomorrow. That’s not the case in Canada, not the case in the UK, and not the case in other places.”
The Alabama Republican is chair of the House Republican Policy Committee, making him a point man for the GOP’s issues conversations.
SEE ALSO: Rep. Gary Palmer interview transcript
It was a conversation the party lacked in the 2020 election, when President Trump ran a largely issue-less campaign, relying on his force of personality and asking voters to judge his record over the previous four years — and to leap at the chance to stick it to his naysayers. The GOP didn’t even write a new platform in 2020.
Mr. Palmer seems intent on making sure Republicans have concrete ideas to take to voters next year, when Mr. Trump won’t be on any ballots.
It’s not clear how much Mr. Trump’s approach affected his 2020 loss, nor is it obvious the GOP needs ideas to make gains in Congress in 2022 given the political headwinds Democrats face.
Not only does the party that controls the White House generally lose House seats in the midterm election, but also President Biden’s fortunes seem particularly grim right now. Yet having a roadmap could help the GOP maintain unity after the election and could lay the groundwork for whomever the party nominates for president in 2024.
Mr. Palmer, in his fourth term in the House and second term as head of the House GOP’s policy committee, ticked off some of Mr. Biden’s vulnerabilities.
“This administration is focused on the exact wrong things at this moment in our history,” he said. “They are so focused on climate change, and they consider that the existential threat when the existential threat is immediate in the form of China and in the form of losing control of our border and not knowing who is crossing that border.”
In the interview with Mr. McKenna, the lawmaker teased an upcoming policy paper laying out a long-term strategy for how to constrain the growing threat from China.
And he suggested the U.S. is failing to use its financial tools to muscle its adversary.
“China is so undercapitalized right now, it’s ridiculous,” he said. “We’re not taking advantage of it.”
He pointed to moves by international financial giants such as Barclays, which put China in its international bond index, which allowed billions of dollars in new investments to flow to the nation.
“I know you can’t call Morgan Stanley or Barclays and tell them, ‘You can’t do this,’ but there has to be something done to head this off,” the congressman said.
On health care, Mr. Palmer says the GOP has a chance to make inroads with cost-minded voters by championing improvements to Health Savings Accounts. Those allow pre-tax dollars to be siphoned into medical needs — but currently all the money must be spent in a calendar year.
Mr. Palmer said allowing HSAs to roll over, and accrue interest, could allow people to build a new source of money to cover medical bills in their older years.
He said that’s the sort of policy that can reach voters the GOP has struggled to connect with.
“We’re not taking away your health insurance. We’re not taking away coverage for pre-existing conditions. What we are doing is going to be of benefit to you,” he said.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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