Rick Santorum painted quite the dystopian image of the Affordable Care Act in his Friday speech, suggesting that health care reform meant the government will “own” people.
“I’ve been traveling around this country talking about how Obamacare will crush economic freedom will make people dependent on govenment for the most important thing: their very lives,” he said. “And as a result government will own you, because you’ll have to pay tribute to Washington to get the care you need for your children.”
The quote has some resemblance to the old “death panels” myth, which suggested government bureaucrats would determine health decisions for individual patients, in effect who lives and dies. In fact, under the ACA Americans who aren’t covered by an expansion of an already existing program, Medicaid, would buy insurance strictly from private providers who would be required to provide more generous benefits than they typically do today.
