Correction, please!(Brief Article)

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ITEM: Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) is rekindling the health-care battle, enthused Thomas Oliphant of the Boston Globe on June 23rd. The senator "has returned to the overall struggle," said the columnist. "Kennedy's comprehensive approach makes room for cost containment, full funding of life and money-saving research, tough steps to rein in drug company marketing programs short of price controls, and equal treatment for the mentally ill. One can almost hear the groans of the status quo defenders."

CORRECTION: It's a false claim that one must support the status quo to oppose Teddy Kennedy's latest expansion of socialized medicine. As it is, health costs have risen as a function of the government's involvement, so increasing that role is hardly the solution. The growth of meddling has been dramatic. In 1960, the federal government spent almost nothing on health care while Social Security was taking up some 13 percent of federal spending. By 2000, health spending consumed 18 percent of the federal budget, with Medicare alone costing as much as Social Security in 1960.

By 2075, under current law, notes Bruce Bartlett of the National Center for Policy Analysis, Medicare will jump to 9.9 percent of GDP and Medicaid will increase to 5.5 percent. In other words, says Bartlett, just two programs -- neither of which existed in 1960 -- will virtually equal the size of the total federal government that year.

Kennedy's plan would exacerbate problems, costing an estimated $500 billion over seven years. Government heavy-handedness is already extreme. A report by PricewaterhouseCoopers for the American Association of Health Plans (AAHP), released last year, found that 27 percent of additional spending was caused by the following: mandates and government regulation (15 percent), litigation (7 percent), and fraud and abuse (5 percent). AAHP President Karen Ignagni noted that this added cost -- some $18 billion -- could have insured 6.8 million more Americans.

The lure of subsidies remains strong, which is why demagogues such as the senior senator from Massachusetts keep up their tired siren songs. A recent survey found an alarming 40 percent of Americans favoring a government-owned, government-run health care system. Yet, those who actually work under such a program know better. In the U.K., eight of 10 family doctors said they would quit the National Health Service if they could.

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