Friday, July 16, 2004
Self-fulfilling prophecy?
[David Broder, "Health care urgently needs an overhaul," The Wichita Eagle, 16 July 2004.]
In today's column from David Broder we find out that there is a groundswell of support for a "massive overhaul" of the U.S. health care system. He mentions Senate majority leader Bill Frist discussing the need for a "radically transformed" system, GM chairman G. Richard Wagoner calling for an end to "partisan politics," and the upcoming release of the National Coalition on Health Care's proposed solution to the issue that will "go far beyond any proposal now being considered."
Broder doesn't touch on much of Frist's relatively consumer-driven proposal, perhaps in an effort to lump Frist's efforts in with those of less consumer-oriented motivations.
But while consumer-driven reform suggestions hold the promise of beneficial change in the industry, others simply repeat the same tired calls for single-payer health care. Bold innovations do not consist of re-hashing ideas that have been tried and failed in other countries. We'll just have to wait and see, though - perhaps the ongoing discussion will truly lead to some creative ideas.
It is troubling, though, that to some degree there seems to be a complicity on the part of the federal government towards a shift towards greater socialization of medicine. As has been reported on this blog and in plenty of other places, government medical programs such as Medicaid and Medicare are leading to massive debt increases at both the federal and state level.
Common sense would seem to indicate that it might be time to cut back on eligibility levels and services that were expanded during the free-spending 90's. Yet, exact opposite is taking place.
With the Medicare overhaul, America received a hugely expensive drug entitlement. And now, recent news reports indicate that obesity has been included as eligible for Medicare benefits. This has the potential to be incredibly costly, as well. Certainly Tommy Thompson is aware of the grim financial situation faced by these programs already. Is there an attempt to intentionally set up the system for collapse so that politicians can then come in and provide the kind of overhaul of the nation's health care system discussed above? Again, we'll just have to wait and see.
[David Broder, "Health care urgently needs an overhaul," The Wichita Eagle, 16 July 2004.]
In today's column from David Broder we find out that there is a groundswell of support for a "massive overhaul" of the U.S. health care system. He mentions Senate majority leader Bill Frist discussing the need for a "radically transformed" system, GM chairman G. Richard Wagoner calling for an end to "partisan politics," and the upcoming release of the National Coalition on Health Care's proposed solution to the issue that will "go far beyond any proposal now being considered."
Broder doesn't touch on much of Frist's relatively consumer-driven proposal, perhaps in an effort to lump Frist's efforts in with those of less consumer-oriented motivations.
But while consumer-driven reform suggestions hold the promise of beneficial change in the industry, others simply repeat the same tired calls for single-payer health care. Bold innovations do not consist of re-hashing ideas that have been tried and failed in other countries. We'll just have to wait and see, though - perhaps the ongoing discussion will truly lead to some creative ideas.
It is troubling, though, that to some degree there seems to be a complicity on the part of the federal government towards a shift towards greater socialization of medicine. As has been reported on this blog and in plenty of other places, government medical programs such as Medicaid and Medicare are leading to massive debt increases at both the federal and state level.
Common sense would seem to indicate that it might be time to cut back on eligibility levels and services that were expanded during the free-spending 90's. Yet, exact opposite is taking place.
With the Medicare overhaul, America received a hugely expensive drug entitlement. And now, recent news reports indicate that obesity has been included as eligible for Medicare benefits. This has the potential to be incredibly costly, as well. Certainly Tommy Thompson is aware of the grim financial situation faced by these programs already. Is there an attempt to intentionally set up the system for collapse so that politicians can then come in and provide the kind of overhaul of the nation's health care system discussed above? Again, we'll just have to wait and see.
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