Hatch on health care, etc.

Incredibly, I am about to take yet another week-long vacation. By all means, keep talking among yourselves, but there won’t be any new blog posts until at least the 24th.
I’ll leave you with some comments from Sen. Orrin Hatch, who visited our editorial board Thursday.

On health-care reform, he said the Democrats are pushing a plan that would begin a slippery slope toward a single-payer system run by the government.
Hatch said 85 percent of Americans are insured and are generally pleased with their providers. The other 15 percent include a lot of people who qualify for Medicaid but have not applied, who are wealthy and don’t buy insurance, who are young and don’t think they need insurance, who are here illegally and demand health care, or who are between jobs. That leaves, he said, about 9 million to 15 million people who truly are uninsured.
“We would throw out the whole health insurance program to take care of 15 million people. That doesn’t sound very smart to me; and do it in favor of a government-run, one-size-fits-all, single-payer system. Now that’s what they’re getting to, in increments. They’re trying to go to a single-payer system.”
Hatch would support insurance reform, allowing people to choose from among several providers, and he would make it illegal to refuse someone for a pre-existing condition. And he would like states to each design their own system.
Hatch, who is a member of the Select Committee on Intelligence, also had much to say on foreign policy matters. On Afghanistan, Hatch made a point of saying Al Qaida is not defeated, and that it is still actively trying to infiltrate this country. President Obama, he said, “is coming to understand that, too.”
He defended the Bush record in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying that he believes in 30 years or so, when classified material is released, people will change their minds about the former president.
Hatch had high praise for Hillary Clinton as secretary of state. “I know Secretary of State Hillary Clinton very well,” he said. “I have admiration for her. Do I agree with her on everything? No. But I admire her. And I can say this, she has distinguished herself as the secretary of state so far, in my opinion. … She’s a tough, smart and intelligent woman.”
Those were the highlights of the meeting, which lasted more than an hour.