Hillary-Care

Senator Clinton is raising some eyebrows with the news that she might garnish paychecks to pay insurance premiums for employees who don't buy health insurance on their own. Truth is, the rest of us who do have insurance, and even taxpayers who don't, are already paying — through cost-shifting in which privately insured patients, Medicare, and Medicaid end up subsidizing the hospitalization costs of the uninsured. It's similar to how those of us who carry auto insurance end up subsidizing those who break the law by not having it, because our insurance often covers the expense of being crashed into by an uninsured motorist. Forcing a share of these costs onto the uninsured would be a move toward equity, and toward individual responsibility rather than collective responsibility. It would be, in other words, a step forward. We'd be more enthusiastic if Mrs. Clinton did not have plans to take away from privately insured individuals far more in tax increases than whatever she might save them in health care premiums. And, more broadly, if the senator conceived the health care issue less as one of cost control and more of one of preserving the American lead in quality and innovation that has led to miracle cures for so many patients.