Affordability, Accessibility & Quality
During her weekly news conference, Speaker Pelosi was asked how they’d sell their health care package to John Q. Public. Here response was that their “overarching message” would focus on “affordability, accessibility, and quality.” That might make sense if you’re living out a fantasy but it doesn’t have anything to do with reality. Here’s the exchange between reporter and Speaker:
QUESTION: Madam Speaker, on health care, given what you just described is going to be very complicated for people to understand, and given the experience that the Clinton health plan had, and then that we had with Medicare part D, with public worries and anxieties and confusion, what strategy are you going to follow to explain this massive bill to people? Because health care is people’s most, one of their most basic worries in life.
PELOSI: It sure is. It is a personal worry in terms of their health and well being. It is also an economic issue for them as well. And I always say everybody in the country is an expert on his or her health care and how to be able to afford it.
We have our overarching message of affordability, accessibility, and quality that the President has put forth. In that framework, we will have the initiatives to help us meet those goals and are deeply rooted in those values. Right now, the bill is being considered, and I can only speak to the House. The three committees are working in unison, practically, with a unified staff. They will have something on the table in a week or two. Hopefully, most of it will already be scored, because at some point we have to know how much each element of it costs to see what we can afford and then how we pay for it. Because it will be paid for. And that challenge for us is to relate what we are doing here to the lives of the American people and how this makes a difference to them.
It isn’t a surprise that Speaker Pelosi is spinning her backside off. Let’s first deal with the issue of quality. Single-payer health care, which is what the administration is focusing on, is a race to the bottom. Value isn’t part of that equation. The best proof I’ve found of that was provided through a single-payer advocate’s website:
3. Increased access to preventive care and the ability of government to purchase prescription medications in bulk would also help drive down health care costs. However, the corresponding drop in revenue for pharmaceutical companies could lead to a reduction in overall research and development, slowing down technological advancement.
That statement is laughable. Saying that reduced profits might lead to a reduction in R & D is understating things by quite alot. If honesty and clear thinking were required, that statement would read ‘reduced profits will lead to a reduction in R & D.’ There are no maybes involved. Here’s another delusional statement from AMSA’s study:
5. There would be a removal of profit-motive in health care. The driving force behind the health industry would be patient care and not profit maximization.
I’ve asked alot of businessmen the best way to guarantee that that they stop doing something other than making it illegal. With unanimity, they’ve said that eliminating profits will get them to stop doing something. Their statements verify the accuracy of the time-tested axiom that anything you regulate, you get less of whatever you’re regulating.
Another thing that’s beyond dispute is that you don’t get quality when price controls are imposed.
ACCESSABILITY
If accessability is a major concern, and it should be, that could be remedied with a health care tax credit. That isn’t President Obama’s or Speaker Pelosi’s goal. It wasn’t Hillary’s goal in the 1990s, either. Their goal is to increase accessability while increasing the government’s control on a major industry. Lest anyone argue that that isn’t President Obama’s goal, ask GM, Chrysler and the TARP-laden financial institutions whether they think the Obama administration wants to control as much of everything as politically possible.
AFFORDABILITY
Finally, let’s discuss affordability. The way ObamaCare provides affordability is with price controls. It’s an artificial way of temporarily providing affordability. It isn’t the way to maintain quality while lowering costs. The only thing that will drive costs down while maintaining quality is competition between private companies. The minute the government gets involved, it destroys markets with price controls.
This statement needs to be destroyed:
But we are very excited about it, whether it is about prevention and wellness, which is the important part of it, investments in scientific research, that we can have personalized, customized care for all Americans, with investments in technology so that we have a common record for all people to be on it, whether it is investments in community health centers to reach out to achieve this, as many people being involved as possible, because that is hard, and community health centers will enable us to do that. Whether it is having the resources to have sufficient health care providers at every step of the way.
When Speaker Pelosi talks about having “personalized, customized care for all Americans”, she’s aware that that won’t exist the minute the public option is implemented. It’s that simple. That’s a one-size-fits-all option and she knows it. She also knows that the glut of regulations eliminates creative options by telling insurers what they can or can’t do.
It’s time that the American people demanded the whole truth from President Obama and Speaker Pelosi. They deserve better than the Democrats’ fact-free spin that’s currently being spewed by corrupt politicians like Speaker Pelosi. Rest assured that I’ll do my part in exposing the Democrats’ spin. I need your help, though, in spreading the word. My question for you is simple: Will you get involved or will you just complain when bad policies are enacted?
Technorati Tags: Reforms, Health Care, Single-Payer, President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, Accessability, Rationing, Spin, Democrats
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog