Joe Wilson, second cousin to Joe the Plumber, is PASSIONATE ABOUT STOPPING GOVERNMENT RUN HEALTH CARE! Fair enough. He's a Republican, and by definition, they don't think government can do anything right.
But wait....
As a retired Army National Guard colonel, Wilson gets a lot of benefits (one of which, apparently, was not a full appreciation of the customs, traditions, and courtesies that mandate respect for one's commander in chief). And with four sons in the armed services, the entire Wilson brood has enjoyed multiple generations of free military medical coverage, known as TRICARE.
Yes, it's true. As politicos and town-hall criers debate the finer points of the public option, employer mandates, coverage for undocumented immigrants, and who's more Hitler-like, they seem to miss a larger point: the United States has single-payer health care. It covers 9.5 million active-duty servicemen and women, military retirees, and their dependents─including almost a 10th of all Californians and Floridians, and nearly a quarter of a million residents of Wilson's home state.
Military beneficiaries like Wilson─who, as a retiree, is eligible for lifetime coverage─never have to worry about an eye exam, a CT scan, a prolonged labor, or an open-heart surgery. They have access not only to the military's 133,500 uniformed health professionals, but cooperating private doctors as well─whose fees are paid by the Department of Defense. It's high-quality care, too: surveys from 2007 and 2008 list TRICARE among "the best health insurer(s) in the nation" by customer satisfaction. Yet Wilson insists government-run health care is a problem.
And there's this:
"As a 31-year Army Guard and Reserve veteran, I know the importance of TRICARE," he said in a press release. "The number of individuals who choose to enroll in TRICARE continues to rise because TRICARE is a low cost, comprehensive health plan that is portable and available in some form world-wide." He went on to call TRICARE "world class health care," concluding on a personal note. "I am grateful to have four sons now serving in the military, and I know that their families appreciate the availability of TRICARE," he said.
Perhaps there's a reason that the plan is low cost and so popular? Perhaps because it works, DESPITE it being a government run health care system? It's amazing what a system predicated on healthy people rather than corporate profits can manage.
When I served, I definitely dug my commie/socialist health care plan that made sure I could focus on doing my service, rather than whether I could afford having maladies checked out. My fellow servicemembers did as well. Are Republicans opposed to government-run health care going to try and slash TRICARE and replace it with private insurance? If those private insurers are good enough for the rest of us, are they good enough for our troops?
Is it pointless to point out Republican hypocrisy?
Rather than talk about "Medicare for all", perhaps we should be thinking of "TRICARE for all"?