oh, and...

Check out this guys blog about giving every kid in the country a CFL:

http://www.thebrightidea.blogspot.com/

Wha?

Massachusetts is (officially) moving on health care. I don't know the details of  the system they are proposing, but it seems to have a lot of support. That's not what I'm blogging about - I'm blogging about this paragraph in the article:

 

Eric Fehrnstrom, the governor's communications director, said that for those people with incomes above 300 percent of poverty, "our assumption was that these would be mostly single mothers who just did not have the wherewithal to get insurance. It turned out it was mostly young males. In some cases they are making very attractive salaries. These are people who just don't imagine themselves needing care, but of course when they break a leg when they're out bungee jumping they go to the hospital and we end up paying for their care anyway."

 

Okay, Eric, I'm totally calling you out on this one. Seriously, what kind of communications director are you? Even if that idea came up in a meeting, why not quickly realize that is was off (not to mention about 500 worse things) and forget about it. Why repeat it? It does not make you (or your potential presidential candidate look good - although it could be that the NYT was looking to do that, but you should've thought of that). Here is what you just said, from my perspective: We assumed that women who have managed to make a life work in which they are solely responsible for their own and their child's welfare are less likely to understand the value of health insurance on a strained public health care system than young people (are they really all men?) with relatively high paying jobs and no (active) childcare responsibilities.

 

Am I crazy, here, or is that a really weird thing to assume, let alone say? In public? To a reporter?!