Sanford hollow on health care

Gov. Sanford on Monday urged residents to contact their congressman to thwart passage of health care reform.

That same day, the S.C. House was forced to use stimulus money - the kind Sanford despises - to stave off deep health care cuts, including prescription drugs, home services for the disabled and assistance for the poor. The governor's missive was written two days before AIDS advocates and medical professionals were scheduled to hold a rally to protest a potential elimination of AIDS funding.

This all occurred in a state - led by Sanford for almost eight years - which ranks 46th in health care. We have a system that works well, but mainly for those who can afford it.

"Put simply, this health care legislation represents a trillion dollar government takeover of nearly one-fifth of the nation's economy," Sanford wrote. "I believe it is a mistake both financially and medically, and that forcing this enormous health care plan on South Carolinians and Americans in general amounts to nothing less than Congressional malpractice. So we'd once again ask Representatives Clyburn and Spratt, for the sake of our state's budget and our taxpayers' wallets, to reconsider the damage this government takeover of healthcare will cause."

Sanford is being duplicitous. He knows it is not a government takeover. The legislation resembles a GOP proposal from the early 1990s and will strengthen the private insurance industry, which infuriates many on the left who want a single-payer system.

He must also know that the most recent proposals have increased state funding to blunt legitimate fiscal concerns many governors had about earlier versions. And he surely knows the proposal is one of the few to come out of Congress that is designed to cut the deficit - by up to $1.3 trillion over the next 20 years, according to the latest preliminary Congressional Budget Office analysis. Shouldn't fiscal conservatives such as Sanford rejoice when the U.S. Congress struggles to put together a debt-reduction bill? Maybe he only likes such responsible government when it is led by conservatives.

What Sanford didn't bother to mention in his letter was more telling. He was ushered into Congress in 1994 when the GOP took control of both houses.

That was shortly after Republicans helped kill President Clinton's health reform plans. Sanford served in the majority party for six years while an increasing number of Americans continued to die from lack of health insurance and many others lost their life savings and homes to cover skyrocketing costs.

According to the Commonwealth Fund, had we adopted reform when Sanford was in Congress, health care would comprise only 14.2 percent of the GDP, not the 17 percent (and growing) it is today. Or had we moved when President Carter or President Nixon tried, it would be no more than 11.5 percent - a savings of trillions of dollars for the nation.

Sanford then became South Carolina's governor. That's why I wanted to know if he believed the state's health care system, and the health of its residents, improved under his leadership.

I'm still waiting for his office to answer.

To recap: Sanford was part of a group of Congressman who had the power to implement their conservative philosophy - including enacting tort reform - to improve the nation's health care system. And he's been governor of South Carolina for two full terms with both houses of the General Assembly controlled by his party. He got tort reform enacted here in 2005, but health care costs have continued to soar in the state.

Since 1995, he's had a chance to shape the health care system for the better at the national and state level.

He failed to do so in Washington and Columbia.

In Monday's letter urging the defeat of health care reform, he spoke of "Congressional malpractice."

He must have been referring to his own.