Seen in the New York Times:
In his speech here, [Giuliani] excoriated Democrats for advocating a “socialist” solution to solving the problem of the nation’s 44.8 million uninsured, saying the party’s candidates encouraged a “nanny government” by proposing a greater government role in health care.
Instead, he proposed tax exemptions of up to $15,000 per family, allowing individuals to direct that money toward the purchase of health insurance and other medical spending. He also said he opposed any government mandates that would require people or businesses to buy insurance, which is central to the universal health care plan neighboring Massachusetts passed in April 2006 when Mitt Romney, a Republican rival, was governor there.
I definitely agree with Giuliani’s principle on libertarian grounds—the government should leave individuals and families to make their own decisions and their own mistakes.
However, I also think that it’s dangerous to underestimate many folks’ own shortsightedness…and I still think that either before or parallel to any debate on universal health care, you also need to have a debate on medical cost inflation—whether anything can be done to taper the growing expense of healthcare, and whether the public will accept the necessary changes.