Bad Medicine

Posted by Mark Todd Engler in Health Care on Jun 15th, 2009 | no responses

President Obama declared today he doesn't want to socialize American health care, drive private insurance plans out of business or force people onto a government-run "public option," and that anyone claiming his proposals lead in that direction is guilty of employing "fear tactics."

If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period. If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away. No matter what. My view is that health care reform should be guided by a simple principle: fix what's broken and build on what works.

…If you like your health care, the only thing reform will mean is your health care will cost less. If anyone says otherwise, they are either trying to mislead you or don't have their facts straight.

In fact, says Cato's Michael Cannon, Obama's the one who's been hoodwinked or is seeking to deceive when he tries selling the idea that ever more government intervention into, direction of and regulatory authority over medicine does not constitute "a Trojan horse for a single-payer system," which, the president acknowledged, he has "taken some flak from members of my own party" for as yet resisting. Cannon writes:

(U)nder the proposal supported by the president, government would control more and more of our health care decisions. Government would compel Americans to purchase health insurance, controlling its content, how much we pay, and the relationships between insurers, doctors, and patients. Government bureaucrats would determine whether Americans receive certain medical services.

There may be no better salesman than Barack Obama, but his product is deeply flawed. The so-called "Public Option," or government-run plan, that President Obama supports would slowly but inexorably lead to the destruction of the private insurance market and the imposition of a government-controlled single-payer system.