We the People Care

Rasmussen. Lowest presidential approval index yet. And on healthcare?

Support for the health care plan proposed by the President and Congressional Democrats has fallen to a new low of 38%. Sixty percent (60%) of voters believe passage of the bill will lead to higher health care costs.

Generic congressional shows a steady Republican lead. Indies go GOP 41% to 24%.

RCP average, presidential job approval.

Michael Barone, Are Democrats exiting the sinking ship? A case in Kansas. As for healthcare, any kind of meaningful choice, affordability, and quality of care is at risk. University of Chicago Law Professor Richard A. Epstein, Unmanageable Competition: How the health care bills will unravel private insurance. His libertarian prescription?

Deregulation of an overheated market should be the new focus. Slash state mandates on health care coverage; allow interstate competition in insurance markets; relax interstate licensing requirements; permit nonmedical institutions like Wal-Mart ( WMT - news - people ) and CVS pharmacy to enter the primary care markets; reform medical malpractice law; and thin out senseless privacy diktats. Lower costs will revive the voluntary market and reduce costs and increase access for seriously sick people.

Heritage looks at the mammogram rationing of ObamaCare. The nanny state dooms you to substandard care--you're just a statistic.

Well, we the people care. Call your Senator and Congressman while they're home.

More. The Chicago Tribune, Stimulus Snowjob. And Dennis Byrne, on the massive ObamaCare power grab:

You need to consider exactly what's in the health care legislation to understand why the breast cancer uproar is instructive and frightening. The legislation provides for the creation of a Health Choices Administration headed by a Health Choices commissioner. Their job is to establish "qualified health benefits plan standards . . . including the enforcement of such standards in coordination with state insurance regulators and the secretaries of labor and the treasury."

The commissioner is appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The law creating this, the Affordable Care for America Act, goes on at some length describing their duties. But that's just the beginning because the duties are described so vaguely that the agency will certainly pad them out with volumes of clarifying regulations. Don't be confused. This is not the "public option" we keep hearing so much about. Whether or not there is a public option, the Health Choices Administration and its commissioner will decide what treatments and benefits you will get. This is not some government agency that you will have a voice in selecting; the law specifies who serves on it, and it's clearly not you or anyone you elect.

The Obama Master Plan.

More. WSJ on the Dem double talk and their accomplices in the media, including an obtuse bon mot from our crassly partisan Sen. Dick Durbin. Liberals and Mammography: Rationing? What rationing?

More. Seven big lies about the stimulus. Accountability and transparency are not hallmarks of government. Can we trust these guys with our lives? A Tale of Six Counties
Suburban voters are cooling on the Democrats.

More. ObamaCare an anti-jobs tax. How about a better alternative, real reform. Sen. Tom Coburn and Dr. Tevi Troy, Forbes:

There are smarter reform solutions that will not cripple our economic recovery and lower wages for millions of Americans. One such idea is the Patients Choice Act, supported by one out of five Republicans in the Senate, which is designed for a 2010, not 1940s, economy. The plan would give every American a tax credit and equalize the treatment of health insurance. This means that individuals, rather than just employers, would be empowered to purchase affordable insurance. In addition, state marketplaces would be established where consumers could get coverage, regardless of health status or pre-existing conditions.

Based on independent estimates, under this plan, nine out of 10 families would see a tax cut, and families earning under $250,000 annually would save money. And in contrast to the Democratic bills, which use Enron-style accounting, the policies of the Patients Choice Act "would reduce future budget deficits, relative to projections under current law, by amounts that increased over time," according to the non-partisan CBO.