The great pipedream of socialists like Bernie Sanders is that the government will take over medical care and it will be “free” to everyone. Of course, as we’ve learned from the examples of other nations, that usually means that everyone will be free to get in line to wait months to see a doctor or dentist, and if you’re still alive by then, to find out that you’re denied coverage because the program is out of money. As I always say, America can’t impose Canadian-style government medical care because then, where would Canadians go when they need medical care?   

You’d think the socialists would learn from these failures, but if they could learn from experience, they wouldn’t be socialists. The states are supposed to be the laboratories to test these ideas. A couple of them already tried the “free government health care” scheme, only to drop it after (surprise!) more people signed up than expected and used more services than expected and the cost was far higher than expected.

Well, add another sucker to the list. Deep blue Illinois approved giving Medicaid-style health benefits to “immigrants” age 42 and older (that’s the Democrat false definition of “immigrant,” meaning mostly illegal immigrants and a few green card holders.) Republicans tried to warn them, with state Sen. Dave Syverson predicting, “If you’re the only state and the only country that says, ‘We’ll take the sickest of yours, send ’em to us,’ it will bankrupt our state.” But who listens to those killjoys?  

Well, now Illinois is being forced to roll the program back after 2024 costs “unexpectedly” rose by a billion dollars. This frustrates some Democrat politicians who were hoping to expand the program to “immigrants” down to age 19. Having no ability to learn from history, they didn’t heed Margaret Thatcher’s famous truism: “The problem with socialism is that sooner or later, you run out of other people’s money.”