The Patriot Post® · Tuesday Opinion

Today’s Editors’ Choice

• Rich Lowry: The Pre-Existing Lie
• Stephen Moore: Entitlement Reform at Last
• Cal Thomas: Will We Ever Learn?

To view all of today’s opinion, click here.

Opinion in Brief

Rich Lowry: “[T]he [Republican health care] legislation is properly understood as doing more to preserve the Obamacare regulation on pre-existing conditions than to undermine it. The legislation maintains a federal baseline of protection in such cases, and says only that states can apply for a waiver from it, provided that they abide by certain conditions meant to ensure that no one is left out in the cold. Since these provisions only involve the individual insurance market, a small slice of the overall insurance picture (about 18 million are on the individual market), and merely make possible state waivers, they are inherently limited. … It takes all of five minutes to understand the basic architecture of the House bill on pre-existing conditions, yet it has been subject to wildly ill-informed and deceptive attacks. … There are certainly legitimate criticisms to be made of the House bill, and ample room for the Senate to improve it, especially by boosting its coverage numbers. But it is not an act of heedless cruelty against the sick. As for its critics, their reflex to demagogic dishonesty isn’t a pre-existing condition, just an ingrained habit.”