Sunday, March 17, 2013


Online Healthcare Innovation Forum:  The POVs of Obama, Me, and You
The  POV I am speaking for is just this: that no significant area of human experience, and behavior reaction should  be held inaccessible , provided it is presented with honest intention and taste.
Tennessee Williams (1911-1983 ), “Tennessee Williams Presents His POV”, Where I Live, 1978
Each of us  is entitled to our POV (Point of View), as long as it is presented with honest intentions and good taste. 
Certainly that is true of President Obama. He has presented Obamacare with the honest intention of protecting all Americans and providing them with affordable health care.  I take him at his word.
But  unfortunately from Obama’s POV, health care is a satellite rotating around a Great Fixed Planet known as public spending (see Daniel Henninger, "The Obamaian Universe", WSJ, February 27, 2013).
Obama’s POV is pre-Copernican. Copernicus (1473-1643) was an astrometer who disproved the theory that the rest of the planets rotated around earth.   In the Obamaian Universe,  President Obama and public spending are the center of the universe. To him, there is no alternative universe, at least not one worth paying any attention.   Healthcare, the private economy, and  other branches of government rotate around him.  Obama  no doubt has honest, even noble,  intentions, and, as President,  he is certainly entitled to his POV.  His POV is his privilege and his prerogative, and he has the power tof  the podium present his POV anyway he sees fit.
Unfortunately, sometimes good intentions pave the road to  adverse, unintended  consequences. These consequences  seem to be  cropping up with increasing frequency to his distress and the distress of the rest of us. Distress manifests itself as higher taxes, higher costs, and a curbersome restrictive bureaucracy.
I have a different POV. My  health care  POV rotates around  innovations created by the private innovators and  entrepreneurs.  Their ingenuity and genius, not big government spending and regulations, reside at the center of the my POV,  the American economy, and the American Way of Life.  I thought of this the other day when I was invited to attend a Venture Summit in New York City where venture capitalists will listen to the stories of 50 top innovators in early stage and emerging growth companies.  The intentions of the entrepreneurs and venture capitalists are good, as are mine. My POV, like Obamacare,  has its downsides, upsides, and its own form of centeredness.
The Online Healthcare Innovation Forum  is a call for top innovators to make your POV known.  You are entitled to your own POV.  I would like to hear you articulate your POVs at the Online Healthcare Innovation Forum.  I have designed the Forum  as a place where everyone can  tell where you  believe the center of the Healthcare Universe lies. Let us hear from you and whether you would like to be interviewed about your POV.

Tweet:   Everyone is entitled to their own POV (Point of View) about healthcare and what innovations  it takes to fix it. Let’s hear your POV.

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