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February 10, 2012
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February 2, 2012
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Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
February 1, 2012
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January 31, 2012
January 30, 2012
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Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
January 27, 2012
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Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
January 26, 2012
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Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
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Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
January 24, 2012
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Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
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Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
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January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
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Katy Hopkins : Consider This Before You Pay for an Online Degree
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Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Karen Kaplan: Study: Nicotine replacement products ineffective when used in real-life situations
January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
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Jewish World Review
March 7, 2007
/ 17 Adar 5767
Health care issue good for votes, bad for policymaking
By
James Lileks
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Can we fix the nation's health care crisis in 700 words? We can try.
Let's start with the latest poll, a CBS News/New York Times joint production that made for a stunning headine: "Most Americans Favor Universal Health Care.'' Hillary Clinton must have done a jig on her desk.
But we already have universal care. We're a generous nation. We have a big heart. When you come to the emergency room with that enlarged heart, you get treated. No, the question isn't universal care, but who pays for it, and on this wee little point the consensus looks a little less impressive.
The poll details are telling. Most people are satisfied with their care; 41 percent are "very satisfied,'' and given the American tendency to kvetch over everything from the color of Anna Nicole's funeral shoes to the high cost of caramel lattes, that's remarkable.
A majority, however, are dissatisfied with the cost. Not necessarily with the cost they pay through insurance, one suspects, but the cost in general the $9 aspirins, the $37 charge for rotating the batteries in the hospital room TV remote, the jaw-dropping prices for the procedures themselves.
It's hard to disagree, especially if you're a boomer who ran across the delivery bill your mom kept. "Room $2. Listerine 50 cents. Infant extraction w/spanking surcharge $6.'' Dad paid with a twenty and got enough back to buy cigars for everyone on the factory floor.
In those days, however, they didn't have high-tech preemie wards, in-utero surgery, or annual malpractice premiums exceeding the cost of the doctor's education.
But surely that's not the reason for increased costs. Who better to solve this mysterious case of waste and inflation than the government? Takes a thief to catch a thief, after all.
Do people want government to take over the entire system? Yes and no.
Let's go back to the poll. Sixty-four percent said the government should guarantee health insurance for everyone. But less than a third believe the government would be better than the private sector at providing coverage. Forty-four percent think the government would do a worse job. Most people want to keep their own private plan, thankyouverymuch, but want the government to offer some bare-bones plan for that other poor schmuck they keep reading about.
The basic message of the poll is clear: Somebody do something.
One California state legislator is: She introduced a bill that would get rid of private health insurance in the Golden State altogether. Wow. It's fascinating how the people most likely to yammer about the right to privacy and the sanctity of choice are the first to sweep rights aside when a greater good presents itself. And there's always a greater good that trumps your personal rights, if one looks closely enough.
Why, look at the needs of undocumented proto-Americans, as we must now call illegal immigrants: A recent poll of Bay Area citizens revealed that 79 percent want the state to guarantee health insurance for aliens. It's one thing to say hospitals can't turn away a sick illegal; it's another to say that the citizens of this country are obliged to insure the citizens of another.
But that's where state involvement inevitably leads: You begin with a warm-hearted desire to prove health care for poor children, and end up subsidizing acupuncture for an able-bodied man who threw out his back running from the border patrol.
Have we fixed the crisis yet? No, but there are a few dozen words to go.
How about this: There is no crisis. There is a problem. There are challenges. There are pressing reasons for oversight and scrutiny and careful extensions of programs to cover children. But "crisis'' supposes that everything's broken and needs to be swept away like some ancien regime that prescribed cake to the sick peasants outside the gate. If most people are satisfied with the quality of their care, that's obviously not in order.
As many have pointed out, there's a shining example of a government-run hospital already: Walter Reed. Imagine that example replicated across the land. Then again, imagine if the government was the defendant in every single medical malpractice case in the land.
If nothing else, we'd get tort reform.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor James Lileks is a columnist for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Comment by clicking here.
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