Thursday, March 05, 2009

Obama Health Care Plan Critique

One of the most decent and succinct critiques of the Obama Health Care plan we've found. Pay particular attention to Vaslow's introduction. It doesn't take a PHd to understand his contention:

employers will opt out of providing health insurance to employees when they are crushed by competition from the government.


the operative words are 'crushed by competition from government.'

When that happens, there will be no free market competition, and government will have no competition, so not only will costs rise as demand continues to scale upwards, there is no guarantee for instance at some point in time baby boomers won't all need health help at the same time and then government will have no option but to both tax more and find some way to decrease the demand. What do you think that will be? Rationing? Filling out questionairres about your lifestyle? Are you obese? Eat a ton of sugar a year? Drink colas 8 times a day? Contribute to your poor health? The government will want to know every single thing about you in order to determine your potential for 'survivability' should you receive the health care you need now vs somebody else who needs the care but is more likely to survive, etc.

The discussion on the page is interesting as well. some entirely miss the point about the rights guaranteed under the Constitution.

They are applicable to you, the individual, not what government provides for you - but the freedom for you to exercise all inherent rights without intrusion from the government (as long as you are not denying or interfering with other's rights while exercising your own).

Note: we weren't supportive of the McCain plan either. We're totally libertarian on this one.

also see Vaslow's followup article

Health care is our responsibility, not our right Tuesday, October 28, 2008

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2008/10/28/argument-health-savings-accounts/


Net the Truth Online

Obama health care plan, voters beware
Tuesday, October 21, 2008 | 12:52 p.m. CDT
BY Dale Vaslow
Don't be fooled by the promise "You can keep your employer's health insurance" under the Obama plan. Yes, you can, but eventually you won't want to, and ultimately your employer will opt out of providing health insurance to their employees when they are crushed by the competition from the government. Under the guise of increased choice, Obamacare is a cynical slide to socialized, single-payer, government-run medicine...

... The single-payer plan abolishes one's individual rights. It denies one the right to self-pay or choose the plan that suits you best. It denies the right to purchase catastrophic insurance, a true insurance plan. In our current employer-based, third-party payer system, constraints interfere with self-pay and true insurance options, but they are still options for many Americans. Under Obamacare these options will be trashed.

Do you have the right to quality care? Screenings for prostate cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, cervical cancer are less frequent in Canada then here, explaining why cancer mortality rates are up to 25 percent higher. Fewer Canadians receive care for hypertension, asthma, diabetes and coronary heart disease than in the U.S. The U.S. has better blood pressure control than Europe, better quality of life for spinal cord injury patients than in Canada and the UK, and higher dialysis rates than the UK for the same renal disease prevalence. The U.S. has higher use of statins to lower cholesterol and higher use of anti-psychotics for treating schizophrenics.

The list goes on...

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2008/10/21/obamacare-not-help-we-need/


Response to Vaslow's piece

LETTER: Vaslow distorted Obama's health care plan
Wednesday, October 22, 2008 | 2:06 p.m. CDT
BY Mahree Skala, Columbia
The editorial by Dale Vaslow, published on Oct. 21, was very misleading and does not reflect the facts about Barack Obama's health care proposals. The author used a classic "bait and switch" approach by dismissing Mr. Obama's actual proposals in the first paragraph, relabeling his plan "Obamacare," and then proceeding to attack the single payer approach to health care financing (which Mr. Obama is NOT proposing).

By setting up and tearing down this straw man, Dale Vaslow avoided any actual discussion of Mr. Obama's real proposal, which would help more people get affordable health insurance coverage and access to health care. Boone County voters are smarter than that and won't fall for such tactics.

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2008/10/22/letter-obamas-health-care-plan-good-approach/

No comments: