Many in the GOP think that rather than focus on gun control, we need to increase the focus on treatment of the mentally ill. Yet, when they are discussing the budget one of the things the GOP focuses on is less spending for all entitlements including spending for the mentally ill. So there is no consistency in the GOP policy.
And why must the Federal Government spend money on mental health? Well as in so many other ways, the private insurance system is not charging enough to do so, so they will not pay. See this news story for an example of that: Link to story
And that is why the Heritage Foundation, Governor Romney and President Obama all decided the only way to make the private health insurance system work for America was to have everyone pay into the system, as they would if we had Medicare for All. The GOP will never support that thanks to the many $ of contributions they get from the Health Insurance Industry.
Two points: 1) It was Dems who demanded that we empty the mental institutions giving us all the mass murderers of the past 40 years and 2) The health insurance industry sold out to Obama (a Dem, we think) on Obamacare having been promised that they would get new customers.
ReplyDeleteIn NY, it was Governor Pataki who worked on getting people out of mid-way homes so he could cut spending on helping the mentally challenged.
ReplyDeleteAnd last I looked, most Democrats support a single payer plan and it was only in negotiation with GOP Senators in 2009 that the Heritage Foundation designed, Romney implemented ObamaCare design came to be the central design of the Affordable Health Care Act. Then the GOP Senators ran in the other direction and voted No.