Needless to say, the meeting went well for the Pres, but not so good for me and you.
What came out of this little get-together was a pledge by the healthcare industry to save $2 trillion over the next ten years. Savings are good. Eliminating wasteful spending is good, too. Of course, what remains unspoken could kill you - and that is the methods that will be employed to save this $2 trillion. Here's a quick rundown on the most likely scenarios:
1. CUTS IN PHYSICIAN'S COMPENSATION. As the universe of those that require health care expands with the aging of the baby-boom generation, the incentives for students to enter the field will diminish as the potential compensation diminishes. Without the expectation of a big payday at the end of those long, hard years of study and self-deprivation, more and more of our best and brightest will finds other areas of interest. Fewer, and less qualified, doctors will be treating more and more patients - just the thought of it is enough to makes you sick.
2. LIMITED AVAILABILITY OF THE BEST DRUGS. It comes as no surptrise to learn that the newest drugs are often the best drugs, and the best drugs are the most expensive drugs. Well, if we are going to cut costs, perhaps the older, less effective drug might save us a few bucks. More people in Canada die of cancer than in the United States, and coincidentally, 44% of all new drugs to hit the market are priced out of Canada's healthcare system. The linkage is inescapable and real.
3. PREVENTIVE CARE WILL DECREASE - NOT INCREASE. It will be one of the first things to go under the rationing system that will have to be imposed to make the cuts a reality. Routine colonoscopies? Look in the rear view mirror and you might get a glimpse.
Dick Morris writes:
Obama's pretension that nobody will find changes in their current health insurance plans except for a magical reduction in their cost by $2,500 a year is a fool's proposition. Private health insurers will be no more private than TARP-funded banks or government-subsidized car companies are in Obama's America. They will be controlled by government health care planners who will approve treatments, limit drug use, hold down medical incomes and bring their cost-cutting programs to bear. Inevitably, their axe will fall on the oldest and the sickest among us, those least "deserving" of our newly limited and, under Obama's program, diminishing, health-care resources.
The other radical changes Obama is bringing about in our nation can always be reversed. New taxes can be repealed or lowered. That which was nationalized can be privatized. Government that has grown can be cut. But once the health care system is extended to cover everyone, with no commensurate increase in the resources available, the change will be forever. The vicious cycle of cuts in medical resources and cuts in the number of doctors and nurses will doom health care in this country. This wanton destruction will not be reversible by any bill or program. A crucial part of our quality of life — the best health care in the world — will be gone forever.
