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Friday, March 19, 2010
Please! Stop Calling It Health Care 'Reform'
By Dr. J. Deane Waldman
University of New Mexico professor
You know the unfunny joke about how you know a lawyer is lying? Answer: His lips are moving.
The political variation goes as follows. How do you know a politician is stealing you blind? Answer: She is saying it is for your own good.
Why did President Obama start the whole dialogue about health care? Answer: Because the cost — repeat cost — of health care is dragging us down as a nation and is financially unsupportable. In his words, "the system is broken."
So what is Congress doing? The president is twisting arms to accomplish what? Answer: A dramatic increase — repeat increase — in spending as well as taxes (whether you call them penalties or something else), and, as a bonus, at the worst possible time.
Let's be clear, "crystal" as Jack Nicholson says in a "Few Good Men." The self-styled health care "reform" bill will generate a huge additional cost to our nation, unless you call it small change when $1 trillion is added to the deficit.
This will happen at a time when the federal government claims to be digging us out of our financial doldrums and adding millions of new jobs. Instead they are penalizing small businesses into Chapter 7 and giving breaks to the unions. The new jobs that will be created will be government mostly regulatory positions that add no value to patients or to anyone else. They just increase the federal payroll, and I forget, who pays that?
The so-called savings to be realized will come from cuts in Medicare. "Cuts in Medicare reimbursements" always translates to cuts in services regardless of what sugarcoating politicians apply. Whether you call it the healing balm, a miracle cure, or reform, snake oil is still snake oil.
The word reform means change to make things better. The health care "reform" bill being pushed on us is the opposite — exacerbation — it will make things worse. It raises costs when the object was to lower them.
Congress cannot call the health care bill what it really is, exacerbation, because then they couldn't say it was for our best interest. It would be like cigarette manufacturers putting on their products in bold print, Get Your Cancer or Emphysema Right Here! So Congress calls what they are doing "reform," hoping we will not notice that their lips are moving.
But we do notice, we do understand, and we oppose this monstrosity masquerading as a savior. We reject a cost-saving measure that will increase costs. That is not reform.
Dr. J. Deane Waldman is a University of New Mexico professor in the Health Sciences Center and the Robert O. Anderson Graduate Schools of Management.
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