[owen] Health care rationing

[Justin B Newman]

On Fri, Jun 12, 2009 at 9:46 AM, Josh Belbeck<joshbelbeck at comcast.net> wrote:
> Our health care system needs to be revamped in some major ways, but to
> let government control that revamping is not only foolish but extremely
> dangerous. I'm not quite sure what those who want socialized medicine
> expect, but you won't have access to treatment that you want, you will
> have to wait to see a doctor and if someone has a private insurance
> policy...expect them to get better service 100% of the time over those
> who have national health care.

What do you propose?  So far, we've known the system was broken for at
least 5 years.  It's gotten worse.  If government doesn't control it,
what will force it to get done?  Do you believe that "the market" has
not been given enough time to fix it?  Do you disagree with economists
who indicate that the lack of correlation between consumer of services
and payer for services creates a capitalist conundrum?

> Our government is not and will never be efficient or effective at
> providing health care. Medical innovation will see a sharp decline
> simply because there will be no incentive to cure known diseases. We
> have the best system in the world, we deliver babies earlier, we take
> risks with our bodies for treatment, we seek out second opinions because
> the first doctor may have missed something. Socialized medicine will see
> all of that disappear.

What portion of the Obama plan do you consider to be socialized
medicine?  What about it do you believe will reduce medical
innovation?  Has the government's role in medicare and medicaid
reduced medical innovation?  Aside from the "slipery slope," what
actual concerns are there?

> But liberals in general want it and they currently have the power to
> pass it and the American people are ill-informed enough to support it.
> Here's to another highly successful medicaid/medicare/va system for the
> entire population...and for the money we don't have to pay for it.

The VA system is operated in a complete and total vacuum, without
interaction from medicare and medicaid.  It is not relevant to this
conversation, unless you believe the Government is considering running
its own facilities.  That said, while there have been horrible,
unbelievable problems, I know a number of vets that say they'd much
rather have it than private insurance.  They're not liberals.  In
fact, I've seen some conservative veterans' voting patterns change as
they have consumed more of the VA system's care.

> It's been very interesting as I've noticed my liberal family members who
> complained about bush's deficits go suddenly quiet when Obama plans on a
> $1 trillion deficit.

The deficit is completely and totally unacceptable.  Unfortunately,
what do you propose?  The deficit has increased significantly
partially because of honest reporting.  It actually makes legitimate
assumptions about the future of the war in Iraq.  If Obama leaves
office with a deficit this large, I will consider his Presidency to be
fairly unsuccessful.  I don't have any reason to believe, though, that
reducing government spending will either a) help the recession or b)
deal with the health care crisis.  Do you?

-jbn