The Daily Background

Rudy Giuliani offered his thoughts on the American healthcare system in an interview with the conservative Weekly Standard recently. He explained that he thinks the health care situation in America right now is great and that it “works” because of the “profit motive”– people making money over whether other people are sick or healthy. Here’s an excerpt (hat tip, Carpetbagger):

“It’s a no-risk society,” Giuliani went on. “If we continue with this idea of collective responsibility, we’ll become a society that deteriorates. And it’s a battle that has to be fought now.”

He offers health care as an example. “Democrats want universal health care, collective responsibility–honestly, it’s their version of socialized medicine.” Even the recent health care reform in Massachusetts, designed by the Republican governor Mitt Romney, was tainted with collectivity, because it required every citizen to get health insurance.

“I don’t like mandates,” Giuliani says. “I don’t like mandating health care. I don’t like it because it erodes what makes health care work in this country–the free market, the profit motive. A mandate takes choice away from people. We’ve got to let people make choices. We’ve got to let them take the risk–do they want to be covered? Do they want health insurance? Because ultimately, if they don’t, well, then, they may not be taken care of. I suppose that’s difficult.”

Incredible. He doesn’t think everyone should be guaranteed healthcare because he doesn’t like mandates. He doesn’t’ like requirements, such as the requirement that everyone have access to basic health care. He actually thinks that the health care system in this country “works.” And he thinks that what makes it so great (or “great” in his mind) is because it’s a for-profit industry.

Outrageously, he says “We’ve got to let them take the risk–do they want to be covered? Do they want health insurance? Because ultimately, if they don’t, well, then, they may not be taken care of. I suppose that’s difficult.” Honestly, how out-of-touch and hopelessly rich can you be to assume that people who don’t have healthcare in this country (some 45 million) don’t have it because they don’t want it.

By the way, as a side note. I wrote a piece for Truthout.org in mid-March about how Giuliani is not a typical Republican, titled “The Unlikely Republican Frontrunner: Giuliani” (the original title was “The Unlikely Frontrunner”). A couple of weeks later, the Weekly Standard happens to have titled their article about how Giuliani is not a typical Republican “The Unlikely Frontrunner.” Coincidence? Ummmm… unlikely.

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