The web and media are full of stories about how Obama is going to cripple the American health care system, take away our right to choose our own doctors and force us all into a Canada or European style system. When you examine the facts this could not be further from reality. And for more than 40m Americans and most employers Obama’s plan is an economic boon and lifeline.
Two recent blogs caught my attention on Twitter. In The “Right” Solution to the Healthcare Crisis @chandlerepp makes several points but it takes right from the GOP playbook. The second blog by insurance agent C. Steven Tucker @csteven Universal Health Care: Would it really work for the United States? makes most of the same claims and uses statements from a study published in 2007 by the US National Bureau of Economic Research based on 2001-2003 data.
Obama’s proposed health care plan
Because Obama is still taking advice from the public, employers, insurers and providers I don’t think anyone knows exactly what the final plan will be. What it will NOT be is a uniquely single payer plan like Canada. This is the argument that both bloggers put forward. This is a GOP fed argument that has no basis in fact. Obama and Biden have been clear- their plan will allow people who have insurance to continue to obtain the medical care from their current doctor.
Let’s end this “single payer” nonsense right now.
To quote Whitehouse.gov
“President Obama is committed to working with Congress to pass comprehensive health reform in his first year in order to control rising health care costs, guarantee choice of doctor, and assure high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans.”
Obama has pledged to include the recommendations from more than 3,200 Health Care Community Discussions.
Lets examine some of the claims made by both blogs.
Democrats call their plan “single payer,” but what they really mean is “government monopoly.”
Read this excerpt from a Press Conference held between the Press Corps and Robert Gibbs May 4th when veteran White House Press reporter Helen Thomas asked:
Press: “What is the President’s chief objection to single payer for universal health care when it works so many places?”
MR. GIBBS: Well, I think among many is I think it is not likely to be workable. I think –
Press: “Why are you afraid of universal health care by a single payer?”
MR. GIBBS: Well, I don’t think anybody is afraid of universal health care. We’re trying to get — our objectives are to cut costs for families that are watching their premiums and their co-payments and their deductibles skyrocket.
How many times does it have to be stated. Obama does not believe in a single payer system as many lobbyists and some in the Democratic party believe. And Obama has been firm that any public plan will have alternatives in the open market. Its just that the alternatives might be more expensive but there will be a choice.
A single payer system may be an option for people who opt for the government public plan BUT that’s because there is a lot of pressure from lobbyists for the poor and uninsured for low cost and efficient system, like Canada and Europe, as the only suitable alternative for those who can not currently afford health care insurance. A single payer system would virtually guarantee that all Americans can have access to affordable insurance that won’t get canceled when you reach a certain limit on your insurance.
A Canadian came to the USA for treatment to save his life
How often do we have to hear isolated cases of this guy or that guy had bad treatment in Canada and came to the US where our magicians of medicine cured him and he lived happily ever after. I hate one off examples and they do a disservice to any argument. Everyone knows someone who was misdiagnosed in the USA. The American courts are full of malpractice suits.
Do bad things happen in Canada- yes (and incidentally malpractice suits are very uncommon). Do they happen because of their single payer system- sometimes. Are there excessive waiting periods for some operations- yes. Do people die as a result of waiting- its possible, it happens here as well. Is any Canadian forced into bankruptcy to pay medical bills- No. Are life saving operations denied- No. Do Canadians have to go to a specific doctor or hospital or will any hospital refuse to treat them? No.
As long as there are people who can afford US medicine there will be people coming from Saudi Arabia or Canada for treatment. This should hardly surprise anyone nor be used as any indicator.
“this intrusion of the government into the private, free market would consequently stifle investment and research”
Baloney. Look at the UK, France and Switzerland, home of leading drug companies, universities and leading research hospitals. 2 of the world’s largest 3 drug firms are French and British.
“the uninsured will, in effect, place the financial burden of their healthcare on the shoulders of the insured. This travesty is innately contradictory to the Republican ideals of individual accountability and responsibility.”
That’s conservative speak for every person for himself. That’s the compassion of the conservatives talking. “Don’t have insurance? Go to a free clinic but its your problem“. They very notion of this statement tied to Republican ideals is abhorrent but regrettably true.
“States have been forcing people to buy auto insurance for years now; why not also health insurance?”
A decent comment. Why the hell not? We are forced to buy auto insurance and home insurance and yet not medical insurance. This made sense until the writer ruined it with
“But liberals be warned: this mandate must not be enforced through a government-centered single-payer system; rather, any mandate for healthcare must be directed with the intention of increasing private insurance and transferring the responsibility for healthcare from the employer (and the government) to the consumer.”
More conservative speak for let insurance companies profit from mandated health insurance and don”t place the burden on employers. If the poor cant afford it, too bad.
“The evidence against government- monopolized, socialized healthcare is damning: it simply doesn’t work”
Show me the evidence! What makes you think that we have to clone another country’s system? What about that American ingenuity you say we have? Why cant we make any system work? Why can’t we offer two systems and let Americans choose? Are Republicans against choice or are they afraid of government competition?
“It’s time Americans had a healthcare system that works with them, not against them.”
Well we finally agree on that one but I disagree that our system today works against us. If that’s the case why does anyone, including Republicans, want to keep the system they have right now? The author seems to contradict himself here.
The column by @chandlerepp is littered with words that are meant to inflame and mislead. It is “liberally” is sprinkled with statements right from the GOP “Doctrine of NO” playbook.
- government-run mandated universal healthcare
- evils of the universal government healthcare model
- any truly functional healthcare system must revolve around free market principles of open competition and consumer choice
- universal healthcare means healthcare for all by government decree or mandate
- the primary problem with healthcare in the United States is neither its disorderliness nor its inherent inequality; it is its cost
- Universal healthcare, to the conservative, thus implies universal access to quality medical care at an affordable, reasonable price.
Fearing I’m already getting too long let me address the study put forward by @CSteven.
Lower income Americans receive better medical treatment than Canadians
This controversial claim is taken from a study using 2001-2003 data written June O’Neill and Dave M. O’Neill, “Health Status, Health Care and Inequality: Canada vs. the U.S.,” National Bureau of Economic Research, NBER Working Paper 13429, September 2007.
Lower income Americans are in better health than comparable Canadians: Twice as many American seniors with below-median incomes self-report “excellent” health compared to Canadian seniors (11.7 percent versus 5.8 percent).
I would point to another study done by the University of Sherbrooke that uses different data analysis methods than used by O’Neill and O’Neill. Health and income: A robust comparison of Canada and the US and concludes
Canada is found to dominate the US over the two groups of lower health statuses in terms of the bi-dimensional distribution of health and income. Given the ambiguous ranking of the marginal distributions of health and income, this must be due to the fact that the worse income distribution function in Canada is offset partly by a better health distribution, by a lower correlation between health and income, and by lower income inequality in Canada than in the US.
The O’Neil Study also claims
“For example, a Commonwealth Fund report showed that women in the United States were more likely to get a PAP test for cervical cancer every two years than women in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Great Britain, where health insurance is guaranteed by the government.”
This can simply be attributed to education. Women in these countries have access to PAP tests at no cost to themselves and the waiting time for a physician appointment to perform the test is no different than in America.
Closing
The @CSteven blog ends quite ominously with the statement “Health Insurance: “The Best Policy Is A Great Agent” and for this reason I think the blog is biased. If the government gets into the insurance business who is going to be the first hit- the insurance agents.
The truth to the issue might lie with the Republicans themselves.
@chandlerepp quotes Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute and Republican Congressman Tom Price
“Blocking Obama’s health plan is key to the GOP’s survival.”
Rep. Tom Price of Georgia—himself a physician—regrets having abandoned the issue to the left:
“Perhaps the greatest missed opportunity of the past eight years was the chance for Republicans to fundamentally reform the terribly broken American healthcare system”
But the real smoking gun has been revealed by Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley in his post May 7th.
“I was shocked when I read a memo from Republican strategist Dr. Frank Luntz laying out plans to dismantle any effort to give all Americans access to quality health care……It is a strategy intended solely to kill reform efforts altogether. In his own words, Dr. Luntz has stated, “You’re not going to get what you want, but you can kill what they’re trying to do……In his memo, Dr. Luntz lays out multiple ways that opponents of health care reform can trick and manipulate the American public.”
Frank Luntz is famous for many things but he wrote a book in 2007 subtitled “It’s not what you say, its what people hear“. Luntz advises politicians on the language they should use to win elections and promote their policies.
Where were the GOP when 40m were uninsured during the Bush years and Republicans controlled Congress? They were cutting taxes for the wealthiest. And is the key to their survival defendant on screwing anyone who can’t afford insurance or forcing people into bankruptcy for a life saving operation?
The GOP needs to get behind a health plan that is fair for all Americans not just the employed and the wealthy. They need to put aside word games and stop trying to cloud the discussion with lies, contrived controversy and tricks.
With Obama’s command in Congress it might not even matter except next election when people will remember who voted for the them and who voted for the status quo.
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Stockholm syndrome.
Stockholm syndrome is a psychological response sometimes seen in abducted hostages, in which the hostage shows signs of loyalty to the hostage-taker, regardless of the danger or risk in which they have been placed.
Over the last 50 years our government local, state, and federal has taken every opportunity to relieve us of our money through excess taxing. To the point in which we cannot afford as we have done over 235 years to self insure ourselves, families, and neighbors .
Now we see “stockholm” syndrom at it’s best as warned of by Jefferson in Mr Tuckers excellent response:
“Back to our Forefathers: Jefferson again: “We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt ($3 Trillion Dollar “Porkulus Maximus” Bill) We must make our election between economy and liberty, or Profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses; and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they now do, on OATMEAL and potatoes; have no time to think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account; (government) but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their CHAINS on the necks of our fellow-sufferers…private fortunes are destroyed by public (government) as well private extravagance. Till the bulk of the society is reduced to be mere automations of misery……than begins, indeed, the bellum omnium in omnia (War of all against all) …..and the fore horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression.” (Letter to Samuel Kerchival, July 12, 1816)
And
Back to our forefathers: Jefferson’s Letter to Joseph Milligan, April 6, 1816: ” There lies the distinction of “charity” or coercion. Here stands Jefferson who feared that if citizens became lazy, apathetic, and IRRESPONSIBLE, government would gain ground and become tyrannical and corrupt, plundering taxpayers for special interests and violating even property rights and other freedoms.”
Now, after 235 yearss of self determination, self reliance, community and family has been finally able to plunder our individual ability through immense immoral taxation that even the victims of this are now (stockholm syndrom) leading the cause that government “only now” begin to behave “justly”?
It is our responsibility now to hold our out of control governmnet to account! Not beg it to remove “more” of our liberties to further control our lives from craddle to grave. Don’t talk to me about a “just society” crap. How just is it, that by coercian the few demand govnerments to remove from those who labored to have much and give it to them?
Stockholm syndrome, the governmnet who bankrupts it’s citizens. and now those same citizens who have nothing (sympothize victims) became emotionally attached to their victimizers and defend the government.
Have govnernment remove the last 100 taxes they have imposed including the $35k on our children (in just 100 days) and paying for my own insurance would be a breeze….and like our fathers still put 20% away on top of that.
Stop buying into tyranny, and instead tell your governmnet to get thier hands out of your pockets !
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