A Call to End Name-Calling

Former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole, a Kansas Republican and the 1996 GOP presidential nominee, wrote a column in Politico this week lauding the VA.

What would you call a healthcare system where the hospitals and clinics are owned by the government and most of the doctors, nurses and managers are government employees?

And what would you call a health insurance plan paid for by taxes extracted by mandate and spent on goods and services whose prices were negotiated using the government's vast purchasing power as leverage?

Finally, what would you call a fully functional health IT system, developed largely by government employees and entirely at taxpayers' expense?

You'd call that health system and plan the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department; its IT system, VistA.

So what should you call a politician who praises VA operations?

A socialist?

Careful now!

Former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole, a Kansas Republican and the 1996 GOP presidential nominee, wrote a column in Politico this week lauding the VA...