2009.07.05
Roth: A recipe for American health care
Testing a recipe for health care
Robert Roth
Roth is a retired surgeon living in Wirtz.
The national health care policy stock-pot is on Congress's front burner. President Obama promised during the election campaign it would be there by summer '09. He clearly elucidated that reform is needed, generally accepted by 70 percent of Americans. Working the recipe in Congress could make for a satisfying healthy meal for most people, but may become a watered down gruel: expensive and tasteless.
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Well said Robert Roth, I like the way you cook!
Comment by Sandi Saunders — July 5, 2009 @ 12:26 pm
There are some good ideas in this recipe to be sure, but Obama's oft-cited quote makes no sense. "If private insurers say that the marketplace provides the best quality health care, if they tell us that they're offering a good deal, then why is it that the government, which they say can't run anything, suddenly is going to drive them out of business?" The obvious answer, to quote one CEO: "It's like playing in a basketball league where the referees decide to form a team."
Comment by The Professor — July 5, 2009 @ 1:57 pm
I think it is the CEO quote that makes no sense and of the two who has more to lose? Do you often leave a good quality provider, offering you a great deal to switch to a provider you have no faith in and view as suspicious? It is my guess that in a game of basketball players against a team of refs, the points scored would quickly tell the tale.
Comment by Sandi Saunders — July 5, 2009 @ 5:12 pm
Sandi,
How would you feel if the team you're playing against gets to call all the fouls? Do you think your team would do well in that situation?
Comment by The Professor — July 5, 2009 @ 6:33 pm
The Professor, rest assured that the team I am playing against has always gotten to call the fouls, it is not a foreign or strange concept to most of us working Americans. My contention is that the analogy does not really "fit" the health care debate. If what exists is "the best" for a "great deal" there is no reason on earth for anyone NOT to choose it if they have that option. We have 40-50 million people with no option other than "a wish and a prayer" health care plan. I am willing to make more sacrifice to help these people and while I do not know what the final plan will look like, I still applaud the effort and even though the least efficient, least caring, most self serving people on the planet (politicians) are in charge of it, I remain that eternal optimist that something good will come of it.
Comment by Sandi Saunders — July 5, 2009 @ 7:25 pm
No, Sandi. Insurance companies cannot enact laws. Government can. Although, I, too, would like health care for all, the CEOs have a point. It's not fair that the guys making the rules are going to compete against private companies. Obama says the rules would apply equally to government and private alike, but that claim is inherently false since government health care will never have the constraint of having to operate in the black to survive.
Comment by The Professor — July 5, 2009 @ 9:03 pm
Well thanks bunches for the civics primer, but I will not concede that the red herring of 'the government makes the rules' dissuades me from my support for the effort. The government USPS has yet to put UPS or FedEx out of business for example.
Comment by Sandi Saunders — July 5, 2009 @ 9:31 pm