It is true that what you see depends upon where you sit. But
moving from one seat to another may as easily distort your
perception of reality as clarify it.
When Frank Keating was the governor of Oklahoma, he vigorously
opposed the federal death tax, which is incredibly destructive of
family farms and family businesses. However, once he became head
of the American Council of Life Insurers, the members of which
thrive and flourish on the chaos created by the federal tax on
estates and gifts, he became a strong supporter of the death tax.
Now, the creator of the famous Harry and Louise ads, Chip Kahn —
the guy who, when he represented big health insurance companies
back in the 1990s, single-handedly did the most to defeat Hillary
Clinton’s scheme to nationalize health care and give it to the
government to run — now that he lobbies for hospitals, which
have supported nationalized health care for many years, he has
come out in support of President Obama’s plans to, you guessed
it, nationalize health care and give it to the government to run.
But clearly there is more going on with Kahn’s flip-flop than
simply moving his backside from a perch in the health-insurance
industry to a seat atop the hospital industry. Big insurance
companies, which financed the torpedoing of HillaryCare, are
themselves on board the ObamaCare Express this time around. Not
only have some of the players switched seats, and hence what they
see, there has been a tectonic shift in the position of the seats
themselves so even those who remain in the same seats see the
world differently when it comes to health-care reform.
In much the same way the government created the financial crisis
by debauching the currency and destructively intervening into
financial, housing and other markets, government has brought on
the health-care crisis through years of ill-considered intrusion
and interventions into the health-care marketplace. Now that
government policies have brought the American health-care system
to the breaking point, politicians are clamoring for change in
the name of “The People” although there is good evidence “The
People” are fearful and skeptical of any government-run solution.
According to a March 19, 2009 CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey,
most Americans like their health-care coverage. More than eight
in 10 Americans questioned in the survey said they’re satisfied
with the quality of health care they receive. And, nearly three
out of four said they are happy with their overall health-care
coverage.
Politicians, though, don’t listen to “The People,” they pander to
organized interests who in turn clamor to be in the room so they
can be in the deal when government expropriates health care. Just
as the government is compounding the problems it created
originally in financial markets by layering on more ill-conceived
government policies, so to will President Obama and Big Health
together break the American health-care system altogether if they
are allowed to nationalize health care and turn it over to the
government and its big-business cronies to run. Heaven save us
from another “public-private” partnership, the monstrosity of the
Republican Party now used by liberal Democrats as the means of
bringing fascism to America.
Organized interests — from liberal advocacy groups to big
business associations — see a huge political risk in getting in
front of the ObamaCare Express, which they fear cannot be
derailed before it runs them over. Moreover, they perceive a huge
business opportunity if they climb aboard the ObamaCare Express
Club Car and help design the new system. Even if big health-care
firms are forced to accept price controls and health-care
rationing, which they almost certainly will under ObamaCare, they
calculate a two-fold advantage if they can help craft the
government takeover of the industry.
First, Big Health sees a chance to cartelize its respective
sectors of the industry, driving out its smaller competitors and
gaining government subsidies and guarantees, much as big
financial companies are doing in the wake of the
government-created financial crisis. Second, with government
almost certainly going to conscript everyone into the
government-run system through an individual mandate of some sort,
big health-care firms calculate they can more than make up in
volume what they may have to forfeit when they lose the right to
charge a market-determined price — a complete delusion and
misconception when rationing kicks in to hold down costs, but a
big-business fantasy nonetheless.
When Chip Kahn lobbied for big health insurance companies in the
1990s, Big Health financed the opposition to government-run
health care. Today, big insurance companies are stoking the
boilers of the ObamaCare Express.
If the politicians are to be prevented from nationalizing health
care and giving it to the government to run, a grass-roots
rebellion will be required to tear up the tracks and sidetrack
the ObamaCare Express. American still has the best system of
medical care in the world. What is failing is the perversely
regulated public/private business model through which it is
delivered. In conspiring to “fix” the failed business model with
a grandiose government scheme, Big Gov and Big Health are getting
ready to wreck the best system of medical care in the world.
There is no magic bullet to fix the health-care business model,
and trying to find one will enslave doctors and kill patients.
What is required is eliminating the many government policies that
corrupt and despoil the system. Indeed, the best we could do, and
the best we could hope for, is a little old fashioned tinkering
that preserves what’s best about America’s health-care system,
expands patient choice to improve upon its best elements and
addresses the real problems, which doesn’t require the fascist
schemes Big Gov and Big Health have in mind.
But before any of this is possible, it is first necessary to
derail the ObamaCare Express.
