Understanding ObamaCare

A President needs political understanding to run the government, but he may be elected without it.

Harry S. Truman (1884-1972), Memoirs, Volume II, Of Trial and Hope

My E-book, Understanding ObamaCare: Travails of Implementation, Notes of a Health Reform Watcher, will be out in January.

What is the book about?

It is not so much about understanding ObamaCare, but about Obama and his health law  understanding America and its general and healthcare culture.

To wit:

We are not necessarily in this all together collectively.  We are in this separately as individuals as well.

As individuals we rely upon one another, but we rely on ourselves as well. 

We expect to earn our own keep, to make our own choices, to be self-reliant, to cherish common values that got us where we are as a  nation,  to elevate ourselves to the level of our talents,  to realize our ambitions, to pay out of pocket for what we want, and to help each other when in need.

We are in this to enjoy our individual freedoms, to lead our lives as we see fit,  to follow our own North Start, rather than to be under national surveillance or marching orders.

We are a diverse, pluralistic people, and we expect to be treated as such. 

Our medical system is diverse not uniform, and its caregivers and receivers are heterogeneous not homogeneous.  One size does not fit all. 

We cannot be standardized.  

Patients and doctors move to different drummers, and each is perfectly capable of making medically intelligent decisions.

We are an independent. not a dependent people.

We do not like to watched or be lectured to about what we can and cannot do. We do not like too many rules and regulations.

We are entrepreneurial and enterprising.  

We like elbow and head  room to rise above the common herd. 

Given that room, we believe one person raises the other up – to a higher level of personal, public, and national achievement.

We are a people of genius – a land where Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Oprah Winfrey can rise to the top of wealth, power, and influence.

We are a free-wheeling democracy, not a sclerotic welfare state.  

We believe people should be able to speak their minds without being labeled as extremists or as politically incorrect.

We believe people should be able to pick their own doctors and their own health plans, or no health plan at all, and take their own medicine, even if that medicine is ineffective and does not meet federal standards.

We believe in specialized excellence and well as generalized compassion -  in being the best and getting the best.

We are a bottom-up.  not a top-down society. Every region of the country and every state makes its own choices of what it wants and what is best for its fellow citizens,  what institutions if supports, and what its people need..

We believe in actions, not words, in results, no rhetoric, in excellence, not in control.

These days Americans are not fond of the word "mandate," perhaps because it rhymes with "dictate" and perhaps because we are increasingly distrustful of Big Government.

Tweet:   Understanding Obamacare  begins with understanding American culture and what it stands for.