Sunday, August 16, 2009

LOL of the Day

But it's a sad, cynical LOL from none other than the President of All of Us:

In the coming weeks, the cynics and the naysayers will continue to exploit fear and concerns for political gain. But for all the scare tactics out there, what’s truly scary — truly risky — is the prospect of doing nothing. If we maintain the status quo, we will continue to see 14,000 Americans lose their health insurance every day. Premiums will continue to skyrocket. Our deficit will continue to grow. And insurance companies will continue to profit by discriminating against sick people.

That is not a future I want for my children, or for yours. And that is not a future I want for the United States of America.

In the end, this isn’t about politics.

As Ed Morrissey notes, this is all about politics. When the government gets involved in some area, it becomes political. More to the point, Barack Obama used health care reform as a political point during his campaign last year. If that doesn't make the debate political, what does?

Obama makes no new points in this op-ed, because he doesn't have any more ammunition for the fight. Every point he makes has been rebutted and debunked by ordinary Americans using common sense. Why would your employer keep offering you insurance if it's cheaper for him/her to dump you in a public plan? And if a "panel of experts" is going to be determining which treatments are "best practices," what doctor is going to face penalties or bureaucratic red tape for ordering different treatments?

We are not the health care consumers of the 1970s, who went to their doctors and took whatever treatments and medicatiosn were prescribed. Today's citizen can go on the internet and find a variety of opinions (including many doctors' opinions) on what the best treatment for any particular ailment is. Doctors don't always like this because patients may become unnecessarily worried about the risks of any procedure, but being more informed allows patients to have a greater voice in their own care.

Similarly, Democrats should be giving patients more power to determine their own care, but encouraging HSAs and consumer-driven health plans. Instead as usual, Democrats want more control for the government in your care. This is what people don't want.