A health mandate is no remedy

By Rose Ann DeMoro
Los Angeles Times
March 3, 2008

Re "A mandate isn't mandatory," Opinion, Feb. 26

Hacker boasts that he influenced the healthcare policies of both Democratic Party candidates. Instead, he should be embarrassed.

What he has crafted is a confusing hybrid that seeks to serve two masters: those who idolize the invisible hand of the market that is choking patients, and those who want real reform.

The main difference between Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama is over who should be mandated to buy insurance, the scheme that helped sink Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's California proposal and that is rapidly collapsing in Massachusetts.

The individual mandate is a scam that only a policy wonk could love. Ordinary people are tired of enriching the insurance companies while the same companies continue to price gouge and deny needed medical care.

Hacker's mystical belief that an underfunded public plan can compete with the multibillion-dollar insurance industry is also a hoax. And it betrays public demand for a genuine solution, such as an expanded Medicare for all that is the only way to solve our healthcare crisis.

Rose Ann DeMoro
Executive Director
California Nurses Assn.
Oakland