The right's hypocrisy over ACA

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The heartbreaking saga of Charlie Gard, a terminally ill 11-month-old boy in a London hospital, has electrified the American right in recent weeks. Charlie has an extremely rare genetic condition that experts agree is incurable. His parents, Connie Yates and Chris Gard, want to take him to the United States for an experimental treatment they believe could prolong his life. They have raised about $1.7 million to do so, and have found an American hospital willing to provide the therapy.

But Great Ormond Street Hospital, where Charlie has been receiving treatment since October, has decided that withdrawing life support is the only reasonable and humane option, and refuses to release Charlie to his parents’ custody. The child cannot hear, see, move, or breathe on his own, suffers frequent seizures, and has irreversible brain damage at the cellular level. Even the American neurologist working with the family has conceded the treatment is unlikely to improve his condition; what is more likely is that Charlie is in pain.

The question of what a society owes its most vulnerable citizens could also point directly to a moral argument for a robust, protective health-care system that takes dignified care of every citizen, not just those who can afford it. Instead, many conservative outlets are using the Gard case as an argument against a more protective safety net. The Washington Times: “Charlie Gard makes Trump case for speedy Obamacare repeal.” The Federalist: “Yanking Life Support From UK Baby Demonstrates Dangers Of Socialized Medicine.” InfoWars video I won’t link to: “Charlie Gard Exposes the Horrors of Single Payer.” These claims rest on fear-mongering over an all-powerful National Health Service, one that decides—in tandem with a totalitarian court system—whose life in the U.K. is worthwhile and whose is too expensive.

Raising the specter of "death panels,” these outlets have turned one hard case into a sweeping referendum on the inherent justice and effectiveness of socialized medicine. It’s as if the death of one child matters, but the death of thousands is the cost of “reform.” Or as if intervening in one complex and tragic case is heroic, but building a system that would prevent the suffering of many more is intolerable overreach.

It seems dubious, to put it kindly, that President Trump was thinking of those questions when he burst into the public conversation around the Charlie Gard case. More likely, he was keying into the rising attention to the child’s plight among his base and their news sources, including Fox News. Trump’s showboating is infuriating given his attacks on the kind of scientific and medical research that would make life better for children like Charlie. His proposed budget would slash funding for the National Institutes of Health by $5.8 billion. It would also cut Medicaid, which covers 39 percent of American children, by $800 billion; the Senate's version of the health care bill makes other devastating cuts to the program. Meanwhile, the U.S. infant mortality rate is already significantly higher than the rates in Europe and other developed parts of the world.

The Right Is Turning the Charlie Gard Tragedy into a Case Against Single-Payer Health Care. It’s the Opposite.