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March 25, 2010

After the Legislation, the Deluge

Justin Katz

This might be the most frightening thing related to the healthcare legislation that I've read thus far:

Dr. Nick Tsiongas, who sounded jubilant when reached by phone Monday, actually agrees with Purcell that the bill is weak on cost control. But Tsiongas, who founded the local reform group HealthRIght, believes the federal legislation will allow Rhode Island to tackle that issue. The federal subsidies are necessary to cover the uninsured, he said. "It establishes a platform on which state reforms can now begin to take hold," he said.

Take hold like a hand around a throat. You may recall Dr. Tsiongas from one of my vlogs:

At Rep. Patrick Kennedy's townhall-esque AARP meeting, Tsiongas explained his desire to pool all of the money currently in the Rhode Island healthcare system — public and private — so that he and his fellow experts could allocate it in a way that they consider to be rational, determining such things as how much of each medical technology is available in the state. His jubilation at the "platform" that enables him to reach such goals is evidence enough that Congressional Democrats and President Obama have done a very bad thing, indeed.