The Battle is On Again Over Health Care for All
By James Donahue
They did it successfully when Hillary Clinton pushed for a public health care system in 1993. The insurance companies managed to cut the best out of Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act during his term in office. And the battle is on again as a Democratic Party coalition now presses to fix Obama’s plan and provide the single payer health care system desired by most Americans.
Other than the battle against global warming the quest for improved health care will probably be among the most important issues facing candidates for the presidency in 2020. As the weather changes sweep the landscape public health issues are growing expeditiously. And it goes without saying that the cost of going to the doctor or checking into the emergency room for medical care is beyond the ability of most middle and lower class families to deal with.
A recent New York Times article by Robert Pear notes that “doctors, hospitals, drug companies and insurers are intent on strangling Medicare for all before it advances from an aspirational slogan to a legislative agenda item.”
From personal experience and from discussions with our private contacts with family physicians we believe Pear’s statement is a bit exaggerated. Everybody wants an improved health care system. What nobody wants, however, is the volumes of paperwork and strict rules that usually go along with working within government established guidelines. Doctors, for example, foresee the hiring of additional staff just to handle the paperwork. And if government price lines are in play, the revenues will be reduced for doctors, hospitals and drug companies. Private health insurance could be a thing of the past.
According to Pear’s article, the fear concerning the Democratic proposal is that Obama’s Affordable Care Act may be completely abandoned. The argument is that rather than scrapping what we have, our legislators should consider improving the existing system which is already in place and working relatively well for most Americans. This is especially true for those enjoying employer-sponsored health coverage.
Charles N. Kahn III, president of the Federation of American Hospitals, put it all in perspective when he said: “Let’s make it (the Affordable Care Act) work for all Americans. We reject the notion that we need to turn the whole apple cart over and start over again.”
Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders has already introduced a bill that calls for an expansion of the present Medicare system to include everybody. And as feared by Partnership for America’s Health Care Future, this plan and any others like it will call for tax increases. They argue that the plan also will give politicians and bureaucrats control of medical decisions now made by the doctors and their patients.
The problem with that argument, however, is that the politicians already control the way the current health care programs are operating. And we all know that the big drug and insurance companies spend a lot of money lobbying for those controls. They usually never benefit the patients.
By James Donahue
They did it successfully when Hillary Clinton pushed for a public health care system in 1993. The insurance companies managed to cut the best out of Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act during his term in office. And the battle is on again as a Democratic Party coalition now presses to fix Obama’s plan and provide the single payer health care system desired by most Americans.
Other than the battle against global warming the quest for improved health care will probably be among the most important issues facing candidates for the presidency in 2020. As the weather changes sweep the landscape public health issues are growing expeditiously. And it goes without saying that the cost of going to the doctor or checking into the emergency room for medical care is beyond the ability of most middle and lower class families to deal with.
A recent New York Times article by Robert Pear notes that “doctors, hospitals, drug companies and insurers are intent on strangling Medicare for all before it advances from an aspirational slogan to a legislative agenda item.”
From personal experience and from discussions with our private contacts with family physicians we believe Pear’s statement is a bit exaggerated. Everybody wants an improved health care system. What nobody wants, however, is the volumes of paperwork and strict rules that usually go along with working within government established guidelines. Doctors, for example, foresee the hiring of additional staff just to handle the paperwork. And if government price lines are in play, the revenues will be reduced for doctors, hospitals and drug companies. Private health insurance could be a thing of the past.
According to Pear’s article, the fear concerning the Democratic proposal is that Obama’s Affordable Care Act may be completely abandoned. The argument is that rather than scrapping what we have, our legislators should consider improving the existing system which is already in place and working relatively well for most Americans. This is especially true for those enjoying employer-sponsored health coverage.
Charles N. Kahn III, president of the Federation of American Hospitals, put it all in perspective when he said: “Let’s make it (the Affordable Care Act) work for all Americans. We reject the notion that we need to turn the whole apple cart over and start over again.”
Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders has already introduced a bill that calls for an expansion of the present Medicare system to include everybody. And as feared by Partnership for America’s Health Care Future, this plan and any others like it will call for tax increases. They argue that the plan also will give politicians and bureaucrats control of medical decisions now made by the doctors and their patients.
The problem with that argument, however, is that the politicians already control the way the current health care programs are operating. And we all know that the big drug and insurance companies spend a lot of money lobbying for those controls. They usually never benefit the patients.