Dr. Marcia Angell MD wrote this thoughtful piece at the Huffington post the day after the Health Care Law was upheld as a Tax by The Supreme Court.
In her piece titled Did John Roberts just give Mitt Romney a gift? she expresses her concerns:
“The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, puts me in mind of the old proverb: Be careful what you wish for. Democrats on a victory lap should watch their step, because John Roberts may have given Mitt Romney a gift. The impact on the health system will be much smaller than the political fallout, because with or without Obamacare, the American health system will continue to unravel — quickly if Romney is elected, slowly if Obama is re-elected.
First the policy, then the politics:
Obamacare is simply incapable of doing what it is supposed to do — provide nearly universal care at an affordable and sustainable cost. The problem is that three years ago, in his futile efforts to win over Republicans (remember the embarrassing courtship of Olympia Snowe?), Obama gutted the law before it was even passed. He made the private insurance companies the linchpin of the new system, and promised them millions of additional customers and billions of taxpayer dollars. He also did nothing to rein in the profit-oriented delivery system that rewards providers on a piecework basis for doing tests and procedures. So with all the new dollars flowing into the system and no restraints on the way medicine is practiced, the law is inherently inflationary….
…Now for the politics. Even though the Supreme Court decision will have little long-term effect on our health system, the political ramifications will be great. To be sure, it’s a victory for Obama, but that will be evanescent. Now the Republicans are on the offensive, and greatly strengthened by John Roberts’ insistence that the mandate is a tax, not a penalty. Remember how hard Obama tried to avoid the T-word?…
…The only way to provide health care to all Americans at an affordable cost is by instituting some form of publicly-administered nonprofit system like those in other advanced countries. After all, they manage to provide universal care at less than half the cost, on average, and their costs are rising more slowly. I have long advocated expanding Medicare (which is a single-payer program) gradually by lowering the eligibility age one decade at a time, while phasing out for-profit health facilities and changing doctors’ fees to reward primary care more and specialist care less.
On July 22, 2009, Obama said in a press conference, “Now, the truth is that unless you have what’s called a single-payer system in which everybody is automatically covered, then you’re probably not going to reach every single individual.” Bingo. Too bad he didn’t hang on to that insight, and use his rhetorical skills to make the case strongly to the American public. If he had fought for single-payer health care at the beginning of his administration, while he had both houses of Congress, and mobilized public opinion behind it, he might have made it. After all, the only thing members of Congress need more than industry money is votes.”
In reponse to her article I said this:
I do not understand what was so controversial about what I said. I completely agree with Dr.Marcia in her analysis of the situation, I just disagree with her on where the healing of our Obese Health Care system is to be found.
Huffington Post is NOT an online newspaper, it is a leftist prostitute belching out Statist Philosophy and Socialist Propaganda even in the comment section. My comment was truthful and legitimate. There is a Market Based fix for healthcare, as articulated by the owner of Whole Foods in a wall street journal piece that was published the summer of 2009 when we were all debating Health Care. John Mackey articulated some great ideas and the left organized a boycott of his store because he had the gall to speak out.
I attended a rally in Boulder at my Congressmans office and said these words the summer of 2009:
The Healthcare fix will come with freedom.
Jenny Hatch
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It is refreshing to read such a thoughtful analysis of the situation.
Health Care in America will only be reformed when the sick incestuous relationship that currently exists between the FDA and Big Pharma is dissolved, drug commercials marketed directly to consumers are abolished, and the toxic, sick, bloated, parasitically infested swamp known as the American Medical Association is exposed as the fraud that it is.
The Alterenative Health Care system in the US defined by Chiropractic, Naturopathic, Midwifery, Herbalist, Homeopathic, and a variety of other healing modalities like Acupuncture currently exists and thrives without government money in a Free Market Capitalist environment. Allopathic Drugs and Surgery medicine should be compelled to halt its Crony and Crisis Capitalism and get into the market, where consumers will decide what they are willing to pay for, not Washington.
Jenny Hatch