Health care profit motive
Why is the public option such a political third rail, even to President Obama?
What part of “option” don’t people understand? If it were going to be mandatory, they’d call it the “public requirement.”
If you want to fall for the scare tactic of a bureaucrat getting between you and your doctor, then fine…don’t opt for it.
Let a profit-seeking insurance adjuster make your life-and-death medical decisions for you. Since that’s pretty much the way things are now, you can stick with what’s comfortable.
Anybody who thinks that the Great American Profit Motive and the equitable, compassionate dispensation of health care share the same code of ethics either has his head wedged in a bedpan or enjoys his own Cadillac health plan and doesn’t care about anyone else.
Not that there’s anything wrong with the Great American Profit Motive. It’s great for making stuff, floating some if not all boats, and keeping congressional campaigns solvent--but I wouldn’t want to rely on it as the only bulwark standing between me and my headstone.
CHAN LOWE has been the Sun Sentinel’s first and only editorial cartoonist for the past twenty-six years. Before that, he worked as cartoonist and writer for the Oklahoma City Times and the Shawnee (OK) News-Star.
Comments
The real problem is that the available facts on where the health care dollars go could fit in a hollowed out pea (a small one :-). With no facts obtainable, FUD runs rampant (that's Fear Uncertainty and Doubt). If anyone were in this debate for anything other than scoring political points, they would be trying to find ways to discover where all the money goes before they try to tell us how to reduce costs they don't understand.
Posted by: Tom | February 25, 2010 5:37 PM
Watched Operation Bamboozle on C SPAN 3...Obama was respectful,lucid, coherent-- Yes-Presidential. It's quite clear that the goal was to shut down any meaningful dialogue or compromise.Distasteful as it is,this "Beating of a dead horse" should have happened months ago. Let's get on with it,or end it.
As I've said in a recent post,Hubby & I,(plus family members) are fine.Medicare,VA,a non-profit health group.But-it's not about "Me & Mine"..Are we a "We" society-Or, a "Me" society? Are we for "We the people"? Or-for the pursuit of greed by corporations who want to bamboozle us.?
Posted by: Lorraine Wagner | February 26, 2010 9:14 AM
TOM-As usual,I enjoy reading your thoughts on various topic's....I'm no Pollyana,(Cynical would be a better description.) Our government and it's leaders don't always make the right decisions,that's for sure.!! But- I'll choose them over unfettered Lobbyist & corporate power every time..They shouldn't be the starting point of any "reform."
Posted by: Lorraine Wagner | February 26, 2010 12:43 PM
Show me one government run entity that works. Show me one government run entity that cares about it's "customers". The government (today) exists solely to exist. Where is the incentive to keep your customer base when everyone is required to use your service?
The only real public option comes in 2010 and again in 2012.
Posted by: Pointman870 | February 26, 2010 1:22 PM
While the Democrats and the President probably believe that their plan will lower health care costs, it will not. Nor will it improve the quality of the health care that is delivered. Unless and until the recipients of health care (we) are forced to read the bills and make conscious choices of whether we will use generic prescriptions, or whether we will use the less expensive MRI takers, or whether we will go to the emergency room for a possible broken little toe, costs will continue to rise. The only solution is some combination of health savings plans and catastrophic insurance.
Posted by: Phil | March 1, 2010 6:14 PM
"What part of “option” don’t people understand? If it were going to be mandatory, they’d call it the “public requirement.” "
Remember, this is our government doublespeak at work, on both sides of the aisle.
"Alternative Minimum Tax", for example:
It isn't an ALTERNATIVE, it is forced on you.
It isn't MINIMUM, it is HIGHER that you would normally pay based on the tax tables.
It isn't a TAX, since you would already be paying taxes, it is an extra fee charged to pay the people that came UP with this boondoggle.
Or how about Patriot Act? Anything in there that increases feelings of patriotism in our people?
Sorry Chan, but the government called income taxes "voluntary" at one point, too, and we saw how that turned out.
Yeah, I know this comment is late, but it doesn't make it any less valid. Never trust the words used by the government, judge them instead by their actions.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 9, 2010 10:28 AM