Wednesday, March 30, 2011

The Truth about ObamaCare: A Book Review

Yesterday I reviewed Why ObamaCare is Wrong for America (Harpercollins paperback, $14.95). Today it’s The Truth about ObamaCare (Regnery paperback, $21.95).

You can always tell a critical book about health reform by its title. The title contains the word “ObamaCare.”

Tomorrow perhaps I can review a book praising the new health law. I have yet to see it. Maybe it will bear the title "UltraCare," to indicate a superior system, or “UtopiaCare, ” to stress that in a perfect world 100% would be covered. Perhaps “DramaCare,” would be even better, for it would contain dramatic stories of the plight of the uninsured.

Of the “uninsured,”, said to number 46.3 million, The Truth about ObamaCare says 9.7 million earn more than $75,000 a year, but are temporarily unemployed, spend their money elsewhere, or consider themselves “invincible”; 14 million are already eligible for government programs; 6 million qualify for employer sponsored insurance but choose not to; 5. 2 million are illegal immigrants, who may not qualify; and 5.0 million are legal immigrants, who may not be aware they are eligible. That leaves about 10 million who are truly uninsured, and they by law must be covered should they go to a hospital ER.

Sally Pipes, author of The Truth about ObamaCare, is president and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute. She is a Canadian expatriate who describes herself as a “refugee from Canada’s government-run health care system.” She has a “Piping Up” column in Forbes; writes often in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal; and regularly appears on network and cable news.

Ms. Pipes makes no bones about her disdain for the wishful thinking and sloganeering that characterize ObamaCare. She has a jugular vein talent for puncturing the promises and lack of performance of the health reform law. Her 274 page book, printed in easily readable large print, has 23 chapters with catchy titles: “Congratulations! You’re on Medicaid!”, "Shackled to the Mandate Gurney,” Minimum Coverage, Maximum Cost,” “Long-Term Ponzi Scheme,” “Selling out Seniors,”, “Your Hemorrhaging Wallet,” “A Cancerous Deficit,” and “The Doctor Is Out – Permanently.”

In her "Doctor is Out" chapter, she makes her points with these subheadings, “Primary Care Docs Are Going the Way of the Dodo,” “The Coming Physician Exodus,” “Increasing Demand," “and “More Patients, Fewer Doctors.”

She asserts, “With ObamaCare, our future is one of few doctors, more patients, and longer waits. Maybe Congress should buy magazine subscriptions for all those doctors’ waiting rooms that will soon be as packed as the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina.”

In this quote, she reveals her satirical gift. Rather than carry on about my impressions of her book, let me share with you a few sentences from her March 29 Forbes “Piping Up” column, which neatly summarizes her book,

“Last week, proponents of ObamaCare celebrated the one-year anniversary of the passage of the landmark health care law with several hundred events across the country. They have little reason to cheer, according to a sobering new study.”

“In the report, former Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin calculates that health reform's tax on insurers, which takes effect in 2014, will raise family premiums by $5,000 over the decade--all by itself.”

“So much for President Obama's campaign promise that his health reform plan would ‘bring down premiums by $2,500 for the typical family.’ Unless Congress rolls back ObamaCare, Americans can look forward to higher premiums, fewer choices and bigger tax bills.”

2 comments:

Richard L. Reece, MD said...

Thanks, Moshe, fro your comments. I agree with you consequences of what we do are often hidden in plain sight. These consequences were too often overlooked when the health care law was built. I will read "Health Secrets from the Seventh Heaven" and tell you what I think.

"fever blisters on lips " said...

Implemented insurances must take an action not only being said. As they say, "action speaks louder than words". People cannot say if a certain project is perfect one if they cannot see any good result on this project.