(3/2010) Holding Pelosi, Reid, And Obama Responsible [Basil and Spice]
March 22, 2010
Mar. 22--Maybe, just maybe, Obamacare will succeed where all others have failed. We have seen the experiment of socialized medicine tried all over the world, most notably in Europe. It has failed and with each passing year, more health care in places like Great Britain and Canada is being covered in the private sector. There are many problems with our system and I promise you that I only want the best care for the American people. The Senate Bill, approved by the House members on March 21st, is going to lead to catastrophe, in my humble opinion. I promise to bow down and kiss the feet of the Pelosi/Reid/Obama team if ever given the chance if I am wrong. I will give credit where credit is due, but I will also hold the trio responsible (and all of Congress that voted to pass these bills) if they injure my patients and ration care based on politics and not best medical practices.
Politicians should never make health care decisions. When they do, they simply decide to pay for services that cover the largest number of voters. Remember, they have one objective, which is to get re-elected. Since 2% of the population takes up 40% of the health care dollars, the 2% of the sick that really need care eventually lose out on based on simple mathematics. Services that cover the majority of voters always get covered at the expense of services for the sick. As I always say, don't believe me, look up for yourself the problems in Great Britain or Canada and how they have tried to remedy the care for the sick over the last 20 years. Yes, I am sorry to inform the supporters of socialized medicine, but other countries have had the same problems with rising health care costs. Between 1960 and 1998, the average growth in per capita health care spending went up about 2.5% in the USA compared to 2.5% in Great Britain. New Zealand came in at 2.6%. (Gerard F. Anderson, et al., "Health spending and Outcomes: Trends in OECD Countries, 1960-1998," Health Affairs, May/June 2000)
Now, I ask the reader a few simple questions. Do you believe that Obamacare is an obvious improvement over what we have? A few weeks ago, Nancy Pelosi said that she didn't have enough votes in the House to pass the Senate Bill; you know, the House with an overwhelming Democrat majority. What happened? If it was such a great health care plan, why did it take back room deals to get it passed? That doesn't scare you? How can you be sure the politicians will provide care for you if you happen to be unfortunate enough to come down with a chronic disease in the future like multiple sclerosis or diabetes? There are about 750,000 patients with multiple sclerosis in the US, for example. Why would a politician care about 750 thousand when he or she needs the votes from tens of millions? It's easy to insure the healthy, but don't we have a moral and social obligation to take care of the sick?
I firmly believe, after paying attention to this process in painstaking detail for the last year and knowing how the system is truly broken, that the Pelosi/Reid/Obama team wants to 100% socialize medicine. The vote on March 21st was just an initial step in the Federal Government 100% controlling your health care in the next 10 years. We will see if I am right, as I am 100% sure now that they have not fixed one problem in the private sector. People are still removed from ownership of their insurance, all costs are still hidden, and there is not a shred of open competition to drive costs down.
I will know if I am right in the next year as we learn more of "the devil in the details" (maybe even the next few months). If President Obama just wants to make sure everyone in insured, then Obamacare will allow the American people to purchase care in an open market that is not clearly covered under the insurance mandates. Makes sense, right? If John Smith wants to go to a specialist, bypass the protocol to see his primary care physician as mandated by Obamacare, and uses his own money to pay for the visit, he should be able to go, right? He would actually be saving money for Obamacare in that he would bypass the primary care physician and group specialist that would be paid out of his Obamacare insurance. Great Britain allows this, more and more each year as the costs go up, but it is not allowed in Canada. As I mentioned a few blogs ago, I have asked 8 politicians if this would be allowed, and 50% said yes and 50% said no. I am suspicious that Obamacare will be 100% restrictive in the very near future.
I hope I am wrong and I promise to admit if I am wrong. As a physician who takes care of the most impaired patients with neurological diseases, like multiple sclerosis, I fear for my patients. I suspect that almost every American still wants some degree of choice in their health care and I am 100% sure that everyone hopes to get appropriate care should they be afflicted with a chronic disease. So, even if you support the current bills, the back room deals, and the significant uncertainty of what these bills will do, I beg of all American citizens to stay engaged with their politicians and the health care system as they roll it out over the next 5-20 years. The Bill, as it stands now, is just a basic framework. The American people can still help formulate the details over the next 2-3 years, and forever thereafter. If we sit back and watch from the sidelines, the devil will formulate the details on his or her own.
For anyone interested in the true facts of socialized medicine versus the system in the USA, I recommend reading, "Lives at Risk, Single-Payor National Health Insurance Around the World," Goodman, JC, et al, 2004.
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Dr. Jeffrey B. English is a Board Certified Neurologist with sub-specialty training in Clinical Neurophysiology. He is in private practice in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. English is the Clinical Research Director at the Multiple Sclerosis Center of Atlanta, a non-profit organization for the treatment of patients with multiple sclerosis. He helped develop and helps run the Center. He is also a national speaker on multiple sclerosis and on the economics of health care delivery. He admits to having "no formal economic background," just extensive "real life, in the field" experience. Dr. English writes the HC On Call series exclusively for Basil & Spice. Visit his Writer's Page.
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