Sick? It's your own dang fault. (Gage Skidmore)

Michael Gerson, the former Bush speechwriter, is delighted by the rise of Rick Santorum in the contest for the GOP presidential nomination. This guy, Gerson tells us , is of the compassionate conservative branch of the party and he most definitely should be listened to.

What does one hear upon taking Gerson's advice? Santorum appeared Friday morning at a townhall meeting in Keene, New Hampshire, population 23,409. To an emergency-room nurse who said her son had had cancer at age 5 and asked the candidate his views on excluding people with pre-existing conditions from health insurance coverage or charging them more for it, Santorum replied:

Insurance works when people who are higher risk end up having to pay more, as they should. You say, in your case, your son absolutely obviously did nothing wrong. Obviously, there are a lot of other people that increased their health risk that did do things wrong and as a result ... it resulted in higher health care costs. So, of course, you always have cases, if it was all the same case as your son then maybe you could make the argument, well nobody did anything to cause their ... instance of health care costs to go up, but of course, that's not the case.

Uh-huh. The kid did nothing wrong, but that shouldn't keep the companies from excluding him from coverage or charging him more than he can afford because most cases aren't like his, right? In most cases, Santorum seems to be implying, it was somebody's behavior that brought on their health condition. So charge 'em up the wazoo. Or just flat out tell 'em no at the door.

So what have insurers included as reasons for not covering people besides the fact they had cancer at age 5?

Having had acne, hemorrhoids or bunions; being a cop or firefighter or migrant worker; being pregnant or an "expectant father"; having had therapy in the past six months; living with a domestic abuser; having had asthma, hay fever, severe headaches or heart disease; suffering from chiropractic problems; having cataracts, cerebral palsy or diabetes; being afflicted by AIDS; having arthritis; or being born prematurely.

One would assume under the candidate's prescription that you could also be excluded if you consume burgers at Micky D's twice a month, ride a motorcycle or commute in the snow, don't religiously exercise for 20 minutes a day or fail to sell your house at a loss because it's downwind of a coal-fired power plant.

What the compassionate Santorum really means when he says some people have engaged in poor judgment that led to their health-care problems is that he just wants the insurance companies to decide who gets covered and who doesn't. Keep the gubmint out of it. What he is compassionate about is the corporate bottom line.

It's views like Santorum's that pushed people to demand health coverage reform in the first place. The results haven't been everything the reformers wanted, not by a long shot, but what's been enacted goes way too far for the likes of the Santorums and the Gersons and the boatload of others who think health care should be a privilege not a right.

Health coverage works when everybody is covered. Period. We're not there yet. It's obvious Rick Santorum doesn't want us ever to be.