Love, Republican Style: Health Care

Okay, this is not about love. Or maybe it is, if we're talking about who loves their country more, Republicans or Democrats. That's a big if, but let's assume it. How do the Republicans of the American Human persuasion demonstrate their love of country? Policy-wise, let me count the ways:

Health care:

1. The prevailing view from the Republican leadership is that it's unconstitutional to mandate that those who can afford it should buy it in order to expand the coverage pool to lower costs.
2. Individual mandates work in Massachusetts, and they will probably work nationally in the same way. That's why we shouldn't have a national program.
3. If you don't have health insurance, it's your own damned fault.
4. Texas is a successful state that should be emulated, even though it ranks tops in those without health insurance.
5. Medicare is in trouble, therefore we need to shrink it so that it provides less coverage rather than more. Therefore, the Republicans plan to respond to our aging society -- which will need more health care, not less -- by making less health care available.
6. Though they claim they want to cut the deficit -- and will only do it by shrinking spending through cutting programs and discretionary spending -- so that their children will prosper, the Republicans nonetheless guarantee that those over 55 will never have their Medicare coverage cut. The only conclusion one can draw from that is that the Republicans very much want their children and grandchildren to have less, not more.
7. The gold standard of Republican plans for Medicare, that authored by Rep. Paul Ryan, (R-Wis.), wants to eliminate Medicare by turning it into a voucher program, though they maintain it strengthens Medicare. Any program that is strengthened by shrinking it, isn't really strengthened. Hint: one of Medicare's strengths is that it costs less than health insurance because its bureaucracy works better, delivering more care per dollar spent.
8. Republicans are savaging Rick Perry (!) because he felt it was a good idea to make Gardasil -- a vaccine that protects women from HPV, the virus that causes cervical cancer -- mandatory under Texas laws. Many if not all states across the nation have mandatory laws preventing children from attending public schools unless they have the proper record of immunizations. Immunizations work in eliminating disease if a substantial number of people have them and fail if they don't. Because HPV is a sexually transmitted virus, a growing number of social conservatives oppose the vaccine because it might, somehow, encourage people to have sex. Because it's wise to immunize women early -- at 12 years old -- so that they NEVER have the risk of acquiring the virus and thus the cancer, social conservatives are concerned that once a 12-year-old girl has the shot, it's Katy bar the door!

Question: If state individual insurance coverage mandates are constitutional and the federal mandate is not, and if Massachusetts' health care system works, why hasn't each and every single Republican governor already sent a bill to its state legislature to establish a MA clone? Answer: they don't want a better health-care system in their state. Another question: why don't the Democratic governors do the same? Answer: they don't need to. Americans already have Obama's Affordable Care Act, so health care is going to be expanded in their states.

And what's going to happen if somehow the courts do shoot down the individual mandate in the ACA? Answer: Republican governors will not race to do it on the "constitutional" state level. And, sadly, few Democratic governors will either. That's a lotta love.