It is now clear to everyone but Barack Obama that there will be no Obamacare between now and the August congressional recess. Concerns over cost and privacy finally have sufficient traction—for the moment.
He has responded to said objections with the usual litany of crap about political gaming, what we can and can’t afford to do to The American Family, and so forth. And he appears set to ride his foot-stomping into at least another couple of months of nothing on health care.
I’ve talked about Obama and the fallacy of the excluded middle, also known as the false dilemma, before, but I’ve not expressed it as elegantly as George Leef did on Friday:
A favorite device of many writers and speakers, left and right, is to pose a false dilemma. Obama does it all the time. (Oh, how I’d love to see a reporter say, “But Mr. President, you’ve just tried to sell your X Agenda by posing a false dilemma: Either adopt my plan or watch civilization end. Those aren’t the only possibilities.”)
As Leef says, the false dilemma is deployed all over the spectrum. However, when Obama is faced with any sort of resistance, this seems (so far) to be his only trick. “Adopt my plan or watch civilization end.” Heh. Love it.
It is becoming clear to me that Obama’s naïveté is paying some of the same dividends that an organized and coherent minority would. Given his utter lack of maneuverability when the road is anything but glass-smooth, I really am starting to think this guy took office fully expecting that two or three great speeches a week would enable him to check off every single item on his ultra-leftist agenda.
We all benefit from the resulting inaction (whether you think you do or not).
Mind, the benefit may well be fleeting. This is no time to relax. It’s still a painfully long time to the midterms, and it’s certainly plausible that the humility necessary to learn shall overcome Obama’s arrogance.
But for just five or so minutes, I’m going to have an adult beverage and enjoy The One’s temper tantrum.
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speaking from the medical point of view, I think it is safe to say that nothing in our health care will change anytime soon. the insurance industry stands to lose too much and they are way too powerful/rich to go down without a major fight. i personally think there are enough moderate democrats in both the house and senate to effectively eliminate any sense of a majority. our health care system does need to be changed, but obamacare (kudos to you, bo) will not happen the way he wants it to…and we will not meet immediate destruction.
All: Bigdave is a physician.
Bigdave: I’m scared to death that more middle ground isn’t being discussed. I don’t disagree that some changes to American health care are indicated. However, it makes me queasy as hell to contemplate sending the whole thing down the socialist rathole Obama proposes to satisfy the needs of the (relatively) small number of people who need help.
Look, I think people who are on board with this shit aren’t getting it. This will be forever. This will be substantial control relinquished to the government that individuals will never get back.
We badly need incrementalism here, folks.
Geesh…and I thought Social Security was the big emergency. After we throw trillions at Health Care and climate change the Dear Leader will suddenly remember social security and come looking for another trillion.
What IS the happy medium? Don’t get me wrong. I know it’s not the Obama plan. It doesn’t seem to me that the way it is set up now that health insurance companies can be particularly controlled by the market / competition / free enterprise, though. The whole HMO thing is wacky, too – instead of $500 your doctor has agreed to accept $30. If you regulate cost, though, then you have big government getting their fingers into the pie THAT way. Do your force individuals to get health insurance like you force them to get auto insurance? What do you do if a person can’t afford to pay even that?
Lea: All of your points are well taken. The problem here is that everyone (physicians included) is so used to pointing out the craziness of the health system that no one is bothering to figure out how to fix it. As you point out, the blame does not lie with one entity (private insurers/HMOs) but with multiple entities (patients demanding the most “up to date” and expensive care, doctors practicing defensive and expensive care, insurance companies demanding lower payouts to physicians while premiums to customers escalate, etc). I agree with you in that I’m not sure where the middle ground is any more! The quality of care that Americans receive is the best in the world, regardless of what you are hearing from “world rankings.” The reason why we are ranked so low is because we have the highest COST per person receiving that care and it is the cost of care we need to drive down without sacrificing the quality. I wish I knew how to solve it. You would be surprised at how many doctors want to do away with the whole insurance system (private and Medicare/Medicaid) and start over with direct (negotiated) payment for care. Think about what a mess that would be!
I agree with an incremental approach. First, let’s get a reasonable estimate of cost. If the bill says $2500 for blood tests, and the lab accepts $75.00 then we all know the real cost is not $2500. But, $2500 is the amount everyone fixates on as “the cost.” If we can get a handle on it, that would be a good place to start the discussion.
The next step is curbing frivolous litigation, or capping crazy awards.
What’s all too often missed in this discussion–not this discussion, here on this blog, but in general–is that excessive regulation is hugely responsible for the current price distortion in the first place. Is there anything really so scary about medical providers and insurers competing with one another in a free market?
My employer asked last year during open enrollment if I’d be interested in pet medical insurance as an available benefit in the future. I don’t remember what I said, but now I hope I said no. That’s all the hell we need is for that to catch on, and welcome to the $500 rabies vaccination.
Saintseester is all over it with tort reform, too. None of this will ever significantly change until malpractice lawsuit abuse is eliminated.
Finally, please also see this post, particularly on scale. There is a compelling case here that the size of the problem we are solving is much closer to 10 million than 50 million.