Conservatives have their say: Prevention vs Cure

Charles Krauthammer (top mugshot) is like George Will, a doctrinaire conservative whose columns are generally predictable and so full of right-wing pontification as to be unreadable. I'm including the link to this one only because I have a strong bias based on personal experience. In 2004, I was diagnosed as a type 2 diabetic, and my HMO doctor laid out some options for me that included changes in my dietary and exercise habits and losing weight. He also ordered consultations with specialists in nutrition and diabetes management, who got me started on the right track.

I consider the medical assistance I received to be preventive since it was intended to prevent the much more serious consequences of diabetes that were almost certain to follow if I maintained the status quo -- and would've been much more expensive to treat. The bottom line is that I'm an advocate for preventive medicine.

Krauthammer, a man with obvious medical problems of his own, doesn't come right out and denounce the concept of preventive medicine, but wastes valuable editorial page space making a case for its lack of cost-effectiveness. One thing I've noticed about conservatives is that in their minds, there's no such thing as a war that's too expensive and no social program that's cheap enough to suit them.

Added 3:58 pm, same day: And while we're on the subject, let's add this, from Rep. Pete Sessions. Pete (bottom mugshot) looks and talks like a poster boy for the dangers of inbreeding, but I read the op-ed he "wrote" for the Dallas Morning News to get a handle on exactly which health care reforms a hardcore North Texas conservative would support. In fact, I read his damned horseshit twice to make sure I got his point. I wasn't surprised to learn the health care system Pete can really support is the one that looks almost exactly like what most of his constituents already have. There is that little kernel in there about using "pre-tax" dollars to buy private insurance, meaning tax cut, meaning same remedy conservatives always come up with as the solution to every fucking problem. Otherwise, his plan is mostly platitudes and generalization. Pete and Charlie had a chance to sway me with their cogency, and both blew it.