ObamaCare Dilemma: Economic Growth  and Employment Versus the Uninsured  and Narrowing of Health Care Choice**

On this side lay Scylla while on that Charybdis in her terrible whirlpool was sucking down the sea.

Homer(700 BC), Odyssey XII

The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice.

George Eliot (1811-1880)

ObamaCare reminds me of the Greek myth of Scylla and Charybdis.  Scylla was a loathsome dark monster (the uninsured), inhabiting an inacessible  cave on an unscalable rock;  Charybdis ( capitalism ) was  a fatal whirlpool (sucking down the poor).

The two represent the dreadful alternatives between which one must make a choice.

In the case of ObamaCare, the choice may be between economic growth , which in the U.S. in the first quarter of 2014 was a dreadful 0.1%,  and the narrowed choice of health care providers and health exchange plans  offering average premium increases of 47% and $6000 deductibles.

Texas is a good example of the dilemma facing Americans.  Texas has the nation’s second highest GDP growth rate of 4.8% (after shale-rich North Dakota at 13.4%), yet Texas ranks dead last in the number of uninsured at 26.3%.   

The American people have made their choice. The Texas population has grown 20.1% versus 9.0% for the rest of the U.S.  over the last decade.  Texas added 1.3 million people from 2010 to 2013, more than any other state, pushing past 26 million.   Its unemployment rate is 5.5% compared to the U.S. average of 6.7%.  Half of the nation’s 10 fastest growing cities are in Texas.

Liberals heap  scorn on Texas, accusing Texans of being all hat and no saddle,  all business and no heart.  But people from other states,  including liberal California,  do not agree. One quarter of Texas new residents hail from the Golden State.   And international and national corporations  do not agree.. Toyota just moved its North American headquarters to Plano, Texas.  

Physicians are also moving to Texas in record numbers because of its lower taxes,  lower costs of doing business, and low malpractice rates. As I indicated in a July 1, 2012 blog, Texas may represent the future of health care. Three quarters of Texas physicians are from other states.

All of this inward migration to Texas indicates that robust economic growth  and low unemployment  are higher priorities for Americans and their physicians than ObamaCare.

The moral of this tale may be: Don't mess with Texas.  It knows what it is doing.

Tweet:   Economic growth and unemployment are more important than ObamaCare  for Americans and their physicians.

** For comment or contact,  call Dr. Reece at 1-860-395-1501 or email me doctor.reece@gmail.com.