Health Reform Follies

Wooden-headeness, the source of self-deception, is a factor that plays a remarkably large role in government. It consists of assessing a situation in terms of preconceived fixed notions while ignoring or rejecting any contrary signs. It is acting according to wish while not allowing oneself to be deflected by facts.
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Barbara Tuchman, The March of Folly (Alfred A. Knopf, 1984)

The Obama Administration has announced it has now has enrolled 7.1 million people in health exchanges. These people include the newly and automatically enrolled. The ACA is 80% of the way towards its goal of 9.1 million. By June, when the Supreme Court rules if people can enroll in federal exchanges, the administration expects to cover 10 million of the uninsured.

And so the march towards the high drama surrounding the Court’s decision grows and crystalises.

The Obama administration says it would be sheer folly to deprive 10 million people of health insurance and let them die on the streets, in their homes, or in institutions for the destitute.

To put in more elegant terms, “The outcome in King could determine whether millions of people continue to have access to affordable, comprehensive insurance.” ( “Predicting the Fallout from King v. Burwell – Exchanges and the ACA,” NEJM, January 8, 2014).

Or, as a medical school classmate friend of mine said when I predicted the Court would rule against the Administration, “You can’t be serious.”

This attitude reflects the pre-conceived wooden-headedness of government. Only government can care for the poor. Only government has compassion. Only government can level the economic playing field. For God’s sake , in the name of equity and social justice, doesn't everyone realize it is the duty of government to redistribute wealth and health.

This may be, but it ignores certain facts. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 55% to 60% of the American people, don’t trust government, resent losing their doctors and health plans, think the ACA ought to be repealed or fixed, voted against Obama policies in the midterms, are opposed to ObamaCare in over 95% of polls over the last five years, and believe additional entitlements contribute too much to our $18 trillion national debt.

So much for the ACA follies.

The GOP has its own set of follies.

How does it propose to deal with 10 million out there now covered and the 20 million more yet to be covered?

Surely some sort of safety net is needed. We are all human beings with human needs, and the poor will always be with us and will always need our help.

How would the GOP provide that safety net? Through Medicaid expansion? Tax credits for all? Tax loopholes for those who need loopholes to survive? Removing regulations, cutting taxes, slashing the corporate income tax, the highest in the world, and by so doing, lifting all economic boats and letting prosperity insure upward social mobility?

Can “growth,” “productivity,” and “innovation” plug the holes in the safety net? Or does it require government professionals, or the “philosopher- kings," like Obama, wwho are disciplined in the art of government?

We are about to find out. The approaching King v. Burwell ruling has all the ingredients, tensions, and conflicts of high drama.

Technology v. humanism? Your health v. your wallet? Government v. markets? Compassion v. rationing? Collectivism v. individualism? Control v. choice? Washington v. the states? Obama v. Congress? Compromise v. confrontation?

Can government take away what it has already given? That is the $1.5 trillion question, give or take a $ 1 trillion. What the hell, who cares, it's only tasxpayer mney.