Jewish World Review Sept. 12, 2003 / 15 Elul, 5763
Drs. Michael A. Glueck & Robert J. Cihak
Medical mischief
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com |
Why do human beings co-operate in their own destruction?
The question has been asked many times, about many human disasters - from
great republics whose citizens surrendered their liberties - to innocents
who walked into gas chambers.
Many answers have been adduced: inability to resist, fatalism, the belief
that some emergencies require stern but "temporary" measures. But perhaps
the most common reason why people choose slavery is the belief that -
despite all the evidence of history and all the force of logic and common
sense - they're going to get something out of it: they'll benefit.
In the August 13th issue of the medical journal JAMA, an article
appeared that must rank as one of the great historical examples of how
people talk themselves into subjugation and disaster. The "Proposal of the
Physicians' Working Group for Single-Payer National Health Insurance" is so
odious, so evil, and so utterly illogical in so many ways that it's hard to
know where to start dissecting it - or to conquer the queasiness
sufficiently to get started. These are its main points:
- "Access to comprehensive health care is a human right. It is the
responsibility of society, through its government, to ensure this right. . .
."
- "In a democracy, the public should set health policies and budgets. Personal
medical decisions must be made by patients with their caregivers . . ."
- "A single public plan would cover every American for all medically-necessary
services . . . Unnecessary or ineffective services . . . would be excluded
form coverage. . . . The NHI (National Health Insurance) program would pay
each hospital a monthly lump sum to cover all operating expenses. The
hospital and the regional NMI office would negotiate the amount . . .
[doctors could choose among payment "options"]"
- "Only a single comprehensive program, covering rich and poor alike, can end
disparities . . ."
Let's dispose of the obvious first.
Rhetoric and the United Nations notwithstanding, there is no enforceable
American "right" to "comprehensive" medical care. Legally, such medical care
would be an entitlement. Which means: You get what the government gives you.
The notion that an abstraction called "the public" will set policies and
budgets is ludicrous; disclaimers notwithstanding, the government will. And
those who set policies and budgets will determine who gets what, regardless
of doctor/patient desires - especially when the government determines that
something you desperately need is "unnecessary."
Equally ludicrous is the notion that the best way to provide medical care
for the poor is to assume responsibility for everybody, including the vast
majority who neither need nor desire state medicine. "Equality" in health
care is impossible and pernicious; no two patients are alike.
Where medical practice follows the preaching of these medical egalitarians,
medical treatment for those with "incurable" or simply expensive medical
conditions, this "equality" formula very often computes to a simple
solution: death. And this death usually comes sooner rather than later,
sometimes even before birth.
Medical caregivers and the government will "negotiate" payments?
Economically, "single payer" is a "monopsony," that is, one buyer controls
the market. If you want to see a monopsony in action, just ponder the
so-called Military-Industrial Complex. How do the sellers respond to the
ever-changing priorities and whims of the single buyer, in this case the
Pentagon and the Congress? By endless duplicity and mendacity, by shady
dealings and sweetheart relationships, by distortion and outright corruption
and dreadful inefficiency.
And finally, if you don't like what you're getting, as a doctor or a
patient, what is your recourse? Where else can you go?
Nowhere - unless you're wealthy enough to escape to a foreign country where
you can buy services with your own money, as many Canadians and other
foreigners already do.
But there's an additional problem, which the advocates of state medicine
rarely bother to acknowledge. The American economy already groans under
unsound government policies and regulations. Social Security and Medicare
cannot be sustained, let alone expanded, in their present forms. (These were
based on the assumption that we'd breed fast and die young. Now we do the
opposite). Our manufacturing and many sectors struggle under increasingly
complex and increasingly wasteful regulations. The federal deficit is
skyrocketing, thanks to our foreign adventures. Were America any other
country, we'd be in receivership.
It can't go on. And handing the medical economy, already one-seventh of the
GDP, over to the government will only hasten the reckoning.
In sum, those physicians who wish to spend their lives as government
apparatchiks are welcome to do so; there are many opportunities, such as in
the service of domestic and foreign governments; many of these wannabe
apparatchiks admire foreign medical systems - but not to the point of
actually hiring on full-time.
But those physicians or patients who expect to benefit from hastening the
inevitable day of economic reckoning - and those who would destroy medicine
in the name of nonexistent rights and spurious equality - should have the
honesty to call such slavery by its proper name.
Michael Arnold Glueck, M.D., is a multiple award winning writer who comments
on medical-legal issues. Robert J. Cihak, M.D., is a past president of the
Association of American Physicians and Surgeons and a Discovery Institute
honorary fellow and board member.
Both
JWR contributors are Harvard trained diagnostic radiologists.
Comment by clicking here.
09/05/03: Unholy medicine
08/29/03: The California Tea Party and West Coast Determinism; Voter anger coming your way soon
08/18/03: The outlaw prosecutors: A Justice and Civil Liberties Issue
08/08/03: "Toxic Teeth?"
07/25/03: Resuscitating the Constitution; CPR American Style
07/25/03: Drug reimportation: Bill translates to goodnight, patients
07/11/03: Costly Medicare Changes, Without Real Reform
07/04/03: The Painful DEA II: War on legal drugs ensnares too many doctors and not enough dealers
06/20/03: The Medicare Mess: Will President Bush call Congress' Bluff?
06/13/03: Diagnosis: School Insanity: A suit for sanity and school discipline
06/05/03: Soaring Medical Costs: Rational ignorance or rational enlightenment?
05/30/03: A Tale of Two Admirable Women: Jessica and Annika
05/23/03: Latest medical innovation: Cash
05/09/03: We feel your pain; Physicians have it too no thanks to the DEA
05/02/03: Medical Quarterbacking
04/25/03: CNN the "Conscience-Not Network"
04/21/03: Medical Miranda?
04/11/03: Are childhood vaccines shots in the dark?
04/09/03: The PETA Principle -- The lambshank Redemption
03/28/03: American conscience?
03/21/03: West Wimps or Wings: Treatment for Hollywood Hypocrisy
03/13/03: Worldwide schmaltz shortage looms --- all because of a featherless chicken
03/06/03: Legal metastases are killing us
02/28/03: Outside the Jury Box: Seeking Justice rather than a Lottery in Medical Liability
02/21/03: Workforce temperature rising; employer TLC in demand
02/14/03: Malpractice Insurance: They Reap What They Sue
02/12/03: Hawk, Dove or Groundhog: Diagnosis Critical List; Prognosis Uncertain
02/07/03: How about tax cuts for the "rich" and "poor"?
01/31/03: AIDS Bug Chasers
01/24/03: Libertarian moment or movement?
01/17/03: It's not just 'sue the docs' anymore
01/03/03: A pox on the critics; diagnosis sour grapes
01/03/03: If protesting is good for your health; then at least let's root for the home team
12/20/02: Obesidemic (obesity epidemic) or not?
12/20/02: Time for voluntary informed smallpox vaccinations
12/13/02: The real reason the state opposes homeschooling?
12/06/02: Conscience of a former conservative: Portrait of a political metamorphosis
11/27/02: Thanksgiving dinner hazard?
11/22/02: Time to think outside the box and inside the nucleus
11/15/02: The military should be protected from abusive environmental laws in times of war
11/11/02: Does Kyoto Treaty pose more harm than global warming?
10/31/02: Deep thoughts on Baseball, the World Series and Life: How about them Anaheim Angels?
10/23/02: "Pediatric rule" guinea pigs
10/23/02: Once the World Series ends, we need to create a Donnie Moore Day of Remembrance: Sports and mental health
10/18/02: Congress to senior patients: Do as we say not as we do for ourselves
10/11/02: Using pollution "scare labeling" to political advantage
10/04/02: The Great Asbestos Heist: Did Litigation and Junk Medical Science Helped Bring Down the World Trade Center?
09/27/02: The imminent rise of civic feminism: A far healthier national alternative in war and peace
09/20/02: A Ray A Day" to replace the daily apple?
09/13/02: Beware of celebrities hawking drugs
09/06/02: Avoid 9/11 overdose: Give blood to begin "September of Service," SOS
08/28/02: From Doubleday to strikeday: Baseball's collective anxiety attack
08/23/02: Should she or shouldn't she?: An alternative view on treating menopause with HRT
08/16/02: Cooking up defenses against germ warfare
08/02/02: Medicine, crime and canines
07/26/02: Lies, pathologic lies and the Palestinians
07/19/02: Medicare Drug Follies … as in "now you see it, now you don't"
07/12/02: Anti-Profiling: A New Medically False Belief System
07/08/02: Don't procrastinate, vaccinate!
06/28/02: The scientific advances on the safe and effective deployment of DDT are being ignored, or denied. Why?
06/21/02: Sex and the system: In seeking healthcare men are different from women
06/14/02: The FDA, drug companies and life-saving drugs: Who's the fox and who's the hen now?
06/07/02: Medical Privacy Lost: A hippo on the healthcare back!
05/24/02: To clean up America's game: A (soggy) ground rule
05/10/02: Free speech is good medicine
05/03/02: Medicine's Vietnam
04/26/02: Attack on alternative medicine could lead to alternative lawsuits
04/12/02: Insure the 'crazies'?
04/09/02: No Time for Litmus Tests: In War We Need a Surgeon General and NIH, CDC, and FDA Directors
04/02/02: The scoop on soot: A dirty rotten shame?
03/22/02: Too many beautiful minds to waste: The first annual Caduceus Movie
03/15/02: Terror and transformation: Defense essential for health & state of mind
03/08/02: Diagnosis: Delusional
03/06/02: The great matzah famine
03/01/02: Is new Hippocratic Oath hypocritical?
02/15/02: Why the recent moaning about cloning?
02/08/02: Searching for Dr. Strangelove
01/15/02: Score one for the value of human life
01/04/02: Medical-legal-financial wake-up call
12/28/01: Who's afraid of a 'dirty bomb'?
12/21/01: End of medicine?
12/14/01: More heroes: Docs deserve a little credit after 9/11
11/16/01: Do we need 'Super Smallpox Saturdays'?
11/09/01: Why the post-9-11 health care debate will never be the same
11/01/01: Common sense good for our mental health
10/26/01: Your right to medical privacy --- even in terror time
10/12/01: Failed immigration policy ultimately bad for nation's mental health: Enemy within leads to epidemic of jumpy nerves
09/28/01: Can legal leopards change their spots: A treat instead of a trick
09/21/01: Civil defense again a civic duty
08/30/01: Shut down this government CAFE
08/23/01: School Bells or Jail Cells?
08/15/01: Time to take coaches to the woodshed
08/10/01: Blood, Guts & Glory: The Stem of the Stem Cell controversy
© 2002
|