Rand Paul: Crony capitalism isn't a right, so why does Senate healthcare bill give insurance companies the right to a bailout?

I remember a lot of outrage about two things when I first ran for office: Obamacare and the bank bailouts. Unfortunately, the Senate healthcare bill combines the worst of those two — this time, we're bailing out the big insurance companies.

Why? Partly because of the crony capitalism that pervades the culture in the swamps of Washington.

But it's more than that. In order to advance their crony capitalism, the Senate Obamacare bill takes us beyond the long-running debate about "is healthcare a right" to a new debate: "Is health insurance a right?"

In other words, is there somehow a right to healthcare that includes a taxpayer obligation to maintain insurance industry profits, which hit a record $15 billion last year?

One would hope not.

But the one certainty of the Senate GOP health plan is that it guarantees a profit for Big Insurance. The same Big Insurance that takes in about $15 billion in profit annually.

Am I the only one in the Senate that finds this brand of crony capitalism unseemly?

We aren't talking about whether or not we take care of the poor or disabled who can't afford their healthcare. We already do that in Medicaid and a host of other direct government programs.

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