You Can't Eat Your Cake And Have It Too

The fight continues over nationalized healthcare, this time with the far left in an uproar, because Obama is no longer considering the "public option" as critical to his program. Nobody should be surprised with this: both Congress and the American public as a whole has expressed that they do not endorse that end. The President NEEDED to back off, or else get his throat cut politically. But other than softening his expressed goal, his main efforts right now are defusing assertions that this plan would largely cut down Medicare's services for the elderly because of cost constraints, and so forth. Also lots of discussion about "death panels," etc. For the most part, he's blowing smoke, and responding to every question and challenge with a sincere promise that they are addressing all points, and that details are being worked out.

But he's not giving us details. It might be because he doesn't have them, but it's more likely because, if people knew the details, they would be even more outraged than they are now.

Even putting aside pesky points like the 9th and 10th Amendments, I really don't know why this is getting so much consideration. Is it really that difficult for people to grasp that the American healthcare system simply cannot effectively cover the entire populace?

Lets spell it out. Healthcare a COMMODITY, and it is expensive. And it's not expensive just because of the evil insurance industry and the Plaintiff's attorneys. Healthcare is a highly skilled field that plays for high stakes (literally life and death), and is EXTREMELY technologically oriented. All efforts that are successful are nothing more than a holding-action anyway; we're all going to die, so even the greatest healthcare victories are ultimately moot. But there are unquestionably lots of highly intelligent, highly trained people who need to get paid (and paid well) for the services they provide.

Rest assured that healthcare providers and professionals have NO SHORTAGE WHATSOEVER of work. Have you been to a doctor's office lately? Or - even worse - an ER? The fact that doctors are consistently behind in their appointments - I waited until almost 5 for my 3 pm appointment - and that the average ER wait is several hours really speaks for itself: even in its current form and with its current load of patients, our healthcare system has severe problems coming through. But it does come through. Look at the statistics: American healthcare is generally excellent, with substantially better cancer survival rates, for example, than even the best numbers among socialized-healthcare nations.

The expressed intention of the Obama agenda is universal healthcare. We have been promised that care will remain excellent. But that is, in a word, IMPOSSIBLE.

The legislation being considered does not substantially address things like training more doctors, building more hospitals, or streamlining the referral process (which is a massive part of healthcare these days). It does not increase the amount of patients that our doctors are capable of treating in a day, and does not mandate the acquisition of more doctors. The plan, apparently, is to try to use Federal law and the BILLING structure of the industry to try to extend our current healthcare TREATMENT structure over an additional 40 million people.

How does this make sense to ANYONE?

There are only so many doctors, and only so many hours in a day. If you require those same doctors to see more patients, they are not going to be able to do the kind of job we expect them to do. Further, if there is more healthcare being demanded by more people from the same number of doctors and hospitals, the cost of healthcare is NOT going to go down, it's going to go UP. That is fucking freshman economics. Add in that, with doctors so rushed, mistakes are going to be made, and medical malpractice cases are going to rise as well, and rightly so. Our government is on the verge of Ordering doctors to do more, without providing them the means to do more.

I hope I don't need to remind anyone what happens when the government decides that it knows business better than the businesses do, but - for quick reference - recall Enron, Grey Davis and the California energy meltdown, and our current foreclosure market. Governments are not all-powerful, and while they can legislate, the act of legislating does not CREATE anything. Ordering the current healthcare system to provide coverage for 40 million additional people - without a drop in quality of care - is like trying to feed an army with one man's lunch. A few loaves of bread and some of fish, for example. No matter what the liberals believe about Obama (and no matter what he might believe about himself), he's not qualified to make that happen.

Besides being beyond the powers of the Federal Legislature, quality national healthcare is beyond the capability of the healthcare system itself. There is only so much water in the well. More people drinking means less water for each. There is no way around this.

So Barack's plan is, frankly, bullshit. It's designed to get a bunch of his cronies into positions where they can make a bunch of money, control peoples' lives (by controlling their healthcare), and perpetuating a welfare state. It ABSOLUTELY will not result in a general reduction of the cost of healthcare; that part at least is simple supply and demand. It ABSOLUTELY will result in a sharp across-the-board decline in the quality of care, as doctors are now expected to see five patients in the time previously allotted for three or four. Do you believe in nationalized healthcare enough to accept a 20 or 25% reduction in the quality of your care? That's what's going to happen. If you are willing, do you really expect others to feel the same?

If the government was serious about reducing the cost of healthcare, how about this: for every year of service provided in a public clinic, hospital, or care institution, the Federal government will forgive 20% of the student loans of any doctor, nurse, or other skilled healthcare practitioner. Put in five years public service, and - in addition to your regular salary over that period - your student loans are totally forgiven. You know: solve the problem though the taxing and spending power, rather than by institutionalizing an entire industry. Give people economic incentive to become doctors and nurses, and give them incentive to use their skills for the benefit of the public. Solve the healthcare shortage by generating more healthcare, rather than by trying voodoo to stretch too little healthcare too far.

But I guess we don't have time for a rational solution. Obama only has a few years to carve his legacy, and so he needs to make a dramatic splash, rather than making an effective change.