The sock puppet strikes again. Twice in 24 hours someone calling themselves “Sarah Palin” has written a statement on her Facebook page.

I’m pleased that the White House is finally responding to Republican health care ideas instead of pretending they don’t exist.[1] But in doing so President Obama should follow his own sound advice and avoid making “wild misrepresentations”.[2] Medicare vouchers would give everyone on Medicare the chance to decide for themselves which health plan to use, rather than leave that decision to government bureaucrats. Such proposals are the kind of health care reform that Republicans stand for: market-oriented, patient-centered, and result-driven.

The White House talking points leave the rest of my arguments unanswered. They don’t respond to the idea that all individuals should get the same tax benefits received by those who get coverage through their employers; that we must reform our tort laws; and that we should allow Americans to buy insurance across state lines. The White House also fails to respond to the Nyce/Schieber study indicating that wages will fall if the government expands coverage without reducing health care inflation rates.

One last thing: after President Obama’s speech tonight, listen for which pundits use the words “false”, “scary”, and “risky” in describing the proposals I put forward. That’s how you’ll be able to tell who the White House counted as “allies” worthy of receiving its talking points.

-Sarah Palin

Market oriented health care. Just what we all need. People making money off of illness. In some countries, Switzerland for instance, it is ILLEGAL to have a for-profit health insurance company. There cannot be a program that is both “patient-centered” and “market driven” and it doesn’t take a health care expert, of which Palin is NOT, to know it. Remember this?

State programs intended to help disabled and elderly Alaskans with daily life — taking a bath, eating dinner, getting to the bathroom — are so poorly managed, the state cannot assure the health and well-being of the people they are supposed to serve, a new federal review found.

The situation is so bad the federal government has forbidden the state to sign up new people until the state makes necessary improvements. No other state in the nation is under such a moratorium, according to a spokeswoman for the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. [snip]

A particularly alarming finding concerns deaths of adults in the programs. In one 2 1/2 year stretch, 227 adults already getting services died while waiting for a nurse to reassess their needs. Another 27 died waiting for their initial assessment, to see if they qualified for help.

One last thing, ex-almost-one-term-governor of a state with less than a million people. Just one more thing. Listen for which pundits and elected officials use the words “false,” “scary,” and “risky” in describing a health care option that guarantees care for all Americans, and allows people to choose their health option, and I will show you who is in the pockets of the insurance companies, and who is a mouthpiece for those to whom the almighty dollar is more important than the lives of actual people.

And show me an ex-governor who likes to throw around words like “death panels” and “downright evil” while those in her own state died by the hundreds waiting for health services, who suddenly thinks that anything she has to say about health care is even close to relevant, and I’ll show you a woman who wants to sell her book, or her soul, or whatever it takes to continue her moment in the spotlight that she never deserved in the first place.

Rant Over.