A Further Perspective
The Fully Inept Tackle Health Care
There are no miracle cures for arrogance and willful ignorance.
As I’m writing this, they’re in a panic in Congress, voting in the wee hours, bribing reluctant senators with millions in slush funds for their respective states, all to ram through a health reform bill that few if any of the lawmakers have even read, let alone intellectually reflected upon or debated.
They’ve already lost the public. In the most recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, support for the Democrats’ health reform bills has dropped to 32 percent. In the latest CNN poll, the public is opposed to the Democrats’ health reforms by a margin of nearly 2 to 1.
“Democrats are on a political suicide mission,” writes Megan McArdle, economics writer at the Atlantic magazine’s blog. “At this point, the thing is more than a little inexplicable,” McArdle asserts, speaking of the unpopularity of the legislation and the subsequent likelihood that Democrats will lose seats in both the House and Senate in next year’s elections.
“No bill this large has ever passed on a straight party-line vote, or even anything close to a straight party-line vote,” writes McArdle. “No bill this unpopular has ever passed on a straight party-line vote.”
The Democrats’ suicide mission is the result of their defining America’s health care system as “broken,” a system in such “crisis” that nothing short of an immediate and complete overhaul is required, a task, unfortunately, that’s beyond the skill levels of Obama, Pelosi and Reid.
Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s Chief of Staff, described the strategy for power grabbing early on: “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”
To get the “crisis” rolling so nothing short of a full restructuring is required, pharmaceutical companies, health equipment suppliers, hospitals and health insurance firms were painted as greedy profiteers, while Obama charged that doctors were taking out tonsils for money instead of simply handing out inexpensive allergy medicines.
“Right now, doctors a lot of times are forced to make decisions on the fee payment schedule that’s out there,” declared Obama in a prime-time news conference. “The doctor may look at the reimbursement system and say to himself, ‘You know what? I make a lot more money if I take this kid’s tonsils out.”
Added the president, talking alleged “sense” about America’s supposed threat from predatory physicians, “I’d rather have that doctor making those decisions just based on whether you really need your kid’s tonsils out or whether it might make more sense just to change — maybe they have allergies.”
What’s missing from Obama’s teleprompter is the fact that 63 percent of men and 66 percent of women in the U.S. survive in excess of five years after being diagnosed with cancer, versus 45 percent of men and 53 percent of women who make it five years after diagnosis of cancer in Great Britain’s government-run system.
Also getting the silent treatment is the leading role that American companies and researchers play worldwide in health innovations. “Eighteen of the last 25 winners of the Nobel Prize in Medicine are either U.S. citizens or work here,” explained the Cato Institute’s Michael Tanner in Senate testimony on September 30, 2009, while “U.S. companies have developed half of all new major medicines introduced worldwide over the past 20 years.”
And so now the politicians, essentially inept, are all set to fix what they know next to nothing about.
About the Author
Ralph R. Reiland is the B. Kenneth Simon professor of free enterprise and an associate professor of economics at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh.
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Pingback| 12.29.09 @ 7:01AM
The Fully Inept Tackle Health Care | bling links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
LeChat| 12.29.09 @ 7:15AM
A once-great political party has now become a clear and present danger to our freedoms. In our own defense, the American electorate must now begin to disassemble the Democrat party and toss the parts on the junkheap of history.
Son Of Sam | 12.29.09 @ 10:17AM
Yes, and we need to put the criminals and lunatics who created these monstrosities in the exact type of cell they both deserve: iron barred for the former, and padded for the latter.
btw, has it ever occurred to any of the dunces in the fossil media thta most Americans trust their doctor but these same Americans don't trust Congress? It seems to me that we should be reforming the politicians, not our health care
stand strong until freedom dawns
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sagman888| 12.29.09 @ 7:53AM
Sure, I'm ticked at the Dems for tampering with our health care system. But I'm madder at voters who ignored warnings and handed the reins to Obama, Pelosi, and Reid. Despite the warped coverage by the MSM, it was all there to see. "We deserve the politicians we elect."
Ret. Marine| 12.29.09 @ 8:11AM
Afraid not, we do not deserve these fools. They all swore an oath to Protect the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic did they not? They also are confined to the Constitutionality of laws they propose. They just think We the People are as stupid as they are, we're not by a long shot.
Just as I did, ( took an oath to protect and serve) the only difference is I meant it, they don't. What is always over looked in this conservation is that these same people ( liberal mindset) make the rules and regulations concerning the education of our children. They have done a rather poor job over the past thirty years or so and the end result is what We the People are dealing with now. So the next time you are sure the dem's, or lib's are solely the problem, please rethink your assesment of the situation, parents hold equal responsibility. And by all means the next time you run into an educated idiot, slap this person for me. They can thank me later. An educated person is a danger to their cause, they know this and are continualy trying to dumb down our youth.
Robert Rosencrans| 12.29.09 @ 9:27AM
Two recent incidents concerning national security should give the public pause when it comes to health care. The government is the law and controls every facet of national security but the American public observed the nation on the wrong end of the incidents at Ft. Hood involving a known Islamic radical in our own armed services, and just recently, when another known radical attempted to blow up a plane in flight. In both cases the radicalism of the perpetrators was well known, but the radicalism was ignored.
The American public should glean a lesson from the two incidents mentioned above, in spite of the President's cozy relationship with radicals of all stripes. If the government has total control of security and this is the best they can do, simply come up with excuses and promises to reorganize, then how can the government be trusted on health care? The fact is they can't. And the mishandling of national security by Homeland Security and the Justice Department proves it.
One other oddity in this situation. President Obama couldn't wait to label a police officer "stupid" within 24 hours of the Professor Gates incident. His response to the two incidents mentioned was tepid at best, avoiding the terms Islamofacists and tip toeing around the term, terrorists. Little is known about the relationship between Khalid al-Mansour, a radical Islamist who arranged for the funding of Barack Obama's Harvard education, and the President, Barack Obama. The alleged Fourth Estate in America has collapsed, merely becoming a hood ornament for the Democratic Party.
Al Adab| 12.29.09 @ 10:39AM
The situation in Congress was long ago identified by Eric Hoffer in "The True Believer". Those dealing with the so called "health care bill" are operating on a faith, misfounded as it is, that they know best for the plebs.
That the citizens continue to tolerate this situation is what should concern us all. Can it be that we are in fact to blame? Have we too, like them, been bought off by projects and money to the detriment of our Liberty? Have we, like Esau, sold our birthright for a bowl of government pottage? If there is an election in November, we will surely learn the truth.
Pingback| 12.29.09 @ 10:58AM
Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : The Fully Inept Tackle Health Care [ links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
davelnaf| 12.29.09 @ 11:19AM
The dems’ belief that people will reward them next year for taking over a sixth of the US economy and then gratefully reward them again in 2012 has got to be one of the stupidest political calculations of all time. Or, is this power grab just a product of blind extremism? Come to think of it stupidity and extremism are both closely related.
jeff| 12.29.09 @ 11:23AM
The only one who seems to get it right now is Mark Steyn. He points out that the democrats are thinking strategically while the republicans are thinking tactically and only as far as the next election cycle. If the donks can drag this thing over the finish line it might result in a few lost seats but over the long term it will expand goverment as never before and take decades to unwind.
tonypal| 12.29.09 @ 11:45AM
Jeff, you're absolutely right on this. If there is anything to admire about the left, it is the patient and methodical way they go about their business. Obama knows full well his party will get massacred next year. He's counting on this entitlement becoming so fully entrenched that it cannot be undone.
The other thing the dems understand is that going forward, every election cycle will be a battle over healthcare funding. Now let's all try to guess who wins the argument over funding, no matter what the program.
The one caveat is that this scheme is only successful if Obama wins re-election in 2012. Remember, the plan doesn't actually take effect until 2014. It will be critical to win back the presidency, along with Congressional majorities before anyone starts reveiving "benefits." If we can pull out some big wins over the next few election cycles, culminating with the presidency, the whole thing can be repealed.
jeff| 12.29.09 @ 11:49AM
Whether Obama is re elected or not the mantra will continue to be "for the children", "for healthcare", "the republicans are opposed to funding for more CT scanners". The brain dead idiots in the mass media will repeat it and the ignorant populace will lap it up. When is the last time a federal program was disbanded?
Ret. Marine| 12.29.09 @ 6:52PM
When was the last revolution, long over-due you think? I do. Itching with sticky fingers.
tonypal| 12.29.09 @ 9:27PM
I disagree. The plan is wildly unpopular. Between Obama signing the bill and the launch of the program in 2014, or whenever, there's very little that can happen to alter that view. On the other hand, taxes will have gone up to pay for the program. As we both know, the dems will look to spend that money on other things right now, but that's a different story.
So by 2012, we will likely have the following scenario: republicans will have made significant gains in the 2010 elections - perhaps even winning back 1 or both chambers of congress, the plan will continue to be unpopular, taxes will have gone up and no one will have benefitted from the plan.
If we nominate and elect a real ideological conservative and give that president conservative majorities in the house and senate, not a far-fetched possibility, then the program could be repealed. The argument as put forth by the nominee would have to include a thorough repudiation of the Obama plan, a bold free market alternative, plus a promise to return all of the taxes that were raised to fund the plan.
I have become more optimistic that the above scenario will unfold. Things are not going to get better for Obama because he is incapable of providing even adequate leadership on any issue. He is a loser, like Jimmy Carter, and people are catching on. He increasingly looks like a one -termer. He will have to run on his record in 2012, which is going to be a struggle to say the least. Let's see if the republicans can rise to the challenge.
Wish-it-were-so-Don| 12.30.09 @ 12:22AM
I keep coming back to the fact that supposedly 60 plus % of the electorate describe themselves as either center right or outright conservative yet we have what we have in Washington. How is that possible I keep asking myself? The answer keeps coming back to the propaganda power of the MSM
which remains as entrenched and effective as as ever in spite of Rush or Sean or Levin or any of the semi-fringe voices on our side.
I doubt that the Dems will pass any tax increase before the re-election of Obama in spite of what the CBO might say once the monstrosity is signed sealed and delivered. 2014 will be just fine with the Dems for the public to feel the unpleasantness
of socialized medicine. By then rationed care will be just one of the little inconvenient truths the 'conservative majority ' will have learned to live with. l
bluecollarbytes| 12.29.09 @ 11:26AM
"Democrats are on a political suicide mission," writes Megan McArdle,.."
The unanswered question is 'will Republicans inadvertently or intentionally take part in suicide prevention'? Don't underestimate the ability of some to muck things up between now and next Nov.
jeff| 12.29.09 @ 11:34AM
The republicans, and mostly the ones in the senate, need to sit on their hands rather than jumping at the automatic need to make a deal/make a friend and trying to "improve" the health bill. Kill it or let it die under its own weight but trying to polish this turd will let the dems off the hook for taking full blame.
jeff| 12.29.09 @ 12:15PM
For this that have not seen it here is Steyn's column.
http://www.ocregister.com/opin.....steyn.html
This needs to be drummed into the heads of all republicans. The dems are not afraid of losing a battle when the larger war is being fought over the long haul. What is one house or senate seat more or less to George Soros or the rest of the marxist horde? They know the wheel will turn and they will get it back eventually.
Franklin| 12.29.09 @ 2:01PM
I read somewhere that, if Healthcare becomes law, some Doctors are beginning to organize into groups that will only accept cash. Patients will sign a statement that they will only be allowed to sue for true malpractice.
No insurance means mighty savings for both doctor and patient.
I hope there will be a group like that near me.
Al Adab| 12.29.09 @ 2:24PM
Many Doctors will organize into PHO's Physician and Hospital Organizations. Your comment raises and interesting question. Why could not county or community Hospitals, along with local doctors form self-insurance groups. Something along the lines of credit unions for banking, such health organizations could be member based with all paying a monthly fee and service provided to members as required.
Many doctors will simply quit rather than suffer through additional red tape and regulation to continue their practice. Already many, mine included, contract with us to carry insurance or pay privately rather than accept medicare billing. Frankly why shouldn't I be allowed to pay for what I need myself? After all, isn't medical care simply another commodity available on the open market?
Nonetheless does not the government plan intend to penalize us for not participating?
Rocco| 12.29.09 @ 6:52PM
A few years ago, while I still lived in Florida, my family doc did exactly that. Joined a group called VIP-MD. No insurance; you paid something like a retainer fee of about $10K per year, and you had the doctor whenever you needed him, for as long as you needed him. I.e. you were completely covered by that $10K per year. No insurance. I could see that spreading.
PJ| 12.29.09 @ 5:48PM
Great idea! To paraphase an old saying for a cash business, "1 ledger for me & 1 for the government."
But seriously it wouldn't surprise me, if these docs wouldn't be allowed to visit any of their hospitalized patients.
Sheila| 12.29.09 @ 7:44PM
Well, I'm glad that the Senate at least added tort reform to the bill....huh? They didn't. WTF!
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Yosemeti Sam| 12.30.09 @ 6:33AM
" ... Rahm Emanuel, Obama's Chief of Staff, described the strategy for power grabbing early on: "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before...."
Hmmmm.
Like flying high and landing with a - thud?
Do ballet choreography experiences and crisis exploitation detrimental to 30o million - really mix well?
LOL.
ehliyet | 1.23.10 @ 4:08PM
Well, I'm glad that the Senate at least added tort reform to the bill....huh? They didn't. WTF!
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