Darwinism in Wisconsin?

Reading through our daily supplement of blogs and news articles, Cory Liebmann at onewisconsinnow.org caught my eye. At a forum hosted by the Institute for One Wisconsin, a health care plan, Smart Medicine, was presented by Jon Rauser. This plan is co-sponsored by Senators Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) and Carol Roessler (R-Oshkosh), with Darling present at the forum.

After Rauser spent some time railing against other plans, he brought up the time-honored stand-by, Health Savings Accounts. From his perspective, which is also that of his employer, the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, HSA's "are a rising star in healthcare reform. Over 3 million Americans are currently enrolled in HSAs, which represents a tripling of enrollees since March 2005, and 40% of those enrollees were previously uninsured." I'm still looking for the numbers, but I don't believe that all 3 million ran out to sign up for the HSA's, mostly due to the fact that these tend to be offered by companies as an alternative to a comprehensive healthcare plan that they do not want to foot the bill for.

By alternative, I mean that given a choice between trying to set money aside on your own, or paying perhaps 50% of the monthly premium on what Walmart may be paying you, the sound decision is having enough money for groceries and heat, with money for the HSA when it might be possible.

The Americans for Prosperity Foundation claims to be "advancing every individuals right to economic freedom and opportunity," and they may be billing their HSA drive as "providing more choice for less cost," but who is getting the benefit of less cost, and who, exactly, gets economic freedom when they run into something more than the flu?

And this all brings it down to the best point that Rauser made: "The only way to control health care costs is to withhold care. Think about that."

Ah, we withhold care. That saves money...usually for those in the CEO set who make the decision to embrace HSA's rather than HMO's for less cost. And that would tackle the economic freedom question as well. If you can't afford to set money aside on a high enough plateau, you're free to not receive treatment that you cannot afford. Survival of the fittest...

And, just as a little icing on the cake, at no point in the forum, even when the podium was hers, did Alberta Darling once try to correct or alter the statements made by Jon Rauser.