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Health Care Reform and the Divine Right of Kings

Prof. Peter Morici - 8/19/2009

President Obama and congressional Democrats have failed to convince the American people their reforms will improve the national health care system.

For sure, the U.S. system is in need of repair. The United States spends 18 percent of GDP on health care, while Canada and prosperous European nations spend about 12 percent. Outcomes are comparable—by some measures U.S. health care is better and by some measures those nations get better results. However, the United States has tens of millions of people without insurance who either can’t get it or afford it.

Drugs, doctor visits and hospital stays are more expensive in the United States. The U.S. system is burdened by huge malpractice costs, and by excessively expensive administration imposed by private health insurance companies that pay lavish executive salaries.

Malpractice lawyers are well positioned within the Democratic Party, and early on, President Obama gave them a pass. In addition, he has failed to adequately challenge the American Medical Association, pharmaceutical companies, and the likes of Aetna and Humana.

Consequently, the President is reduced to asking Americans to spend more and pay higher taxes for health care today, while vaguely promising to “bend the curve” and lower costs in the future.

Americans fear that Obama’s curve bending will come down to rationing that puts ordinary citizens in long queues and the elderly at peril. Long waits for surgery and to see specialists in foreign government-run systems make those fears well founded. It becomes a short leap to hysteria about euthanasia.

Americans fear a moribund bureaucracy, akin to the Post Office, will be making critical decisions in their lives, and they will be left with the kind of recourse they now enjoy in tax disputes with the Internal Revenue Service.

Those fears are genuine and not satisfactorily answered by President Obama and Speaker Pelosi.

At town hall meetings, members of Congress and the President face citizen anger. Democrats and the media are quick to note conservative groups have encouraged opponents of health care reform to voice their concerns, but Democrats often ignore that labor unions favoring nationalized health care also cram these meetings.

Polling data indicate voter approval, among all voters, for the Democrats plan has fallen below 50 percent while opposition stays above that important dividing line.

Undeterred, Nancy Pelosi and her liberal lieutenants in Congress scream they are victims of right wing scare tactics. In reality, a theocratic conviction that more government always improves conditions makes Democratic Party leadership blind to facts and deaf to reason.

The Bush Administration and its conservative allies in Congress were not much better. To the end, they believed that market forces could lower health care costs and rein in excesses on Wall Street.

In Washington, conservative Republicans believe liberals are not merely wrong but dumb too—that makes whatever Republicans advocate smart and compelling.

Liberal Democrats believe conservatives are not merely wrong but evil—that makes their reform agenda the Work of God.

I don’t mind politicians praying for divine inspiration in hours of trial. What disturbs me are those claiming the Divine Right of Kings.