Killing Health Care

Op-Ed Contributor: Shifting America from sick care to genuine wellness
Yahoo!
By Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa)

Washington, DC — With the Senate health committee convening daily to craft a comprehensive health reform bill, the basic outline of this landmark legislation is now clear.

Yes, it will ensure access to affordable, quality care for every American. [Oh goodie, the government will take care of all of us] But, just as important, it will hold down health care costs by creating a sharp new emphasis on disease prevention and public health. [The only reason it will lower health care costs for Americans is because the government doesn't need to run on a profit, they just print more money.]

As the lead Senator in drafting the Prevention and Public Health section of the bill, I view this legislation as our opportunity to recreate America as a genuine wellness society – a society that is focused on prevention, good nutrition, fitness, and public health. [Whoa! Hold your horses. "Recreate America?" America does not need to be recreated...it needs to be reinvigorated and purged of the Government Plantation. Beware! When they say prevention, etc. they really mean you WILL exercise, get unnecessary tests every month, stop smoking, stop drinking, stop eating sweets, stop eating meat or else you WILL NOT get treatment when something catastrophic happens. Just ask anyone in the UK]

The fact is, we currently do not have a health care system in the United States; we have a sick care system. [So he doesn't want our health taken care of? More re-definition] If you’re sick, you get care, whether through insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, community health centers, emergency rooms, or charity. [Isn't that the whole point of those things?] The problem is that this is all about patching things up after people develop serious illnesses and chronic conditions. [Please, has this guy never heard of George Burns? This is all leading up to dictating what you can eat and your lifestyle. What are the lifestyle activists known as "gay rights" going to do when this junk goes down? I'm sure they'll be hypocritical about the whole thing.]

We spend a staggering $2.3 trillion annually on health care – 16.5 percent of our GDP and far more than any other country spends on health care – yet the World Health Organization ranks U.S. health care only 37th among nations, on par with Serbia. [Oh, by the way, they fail to mention that of that $2.3 trillion, $547 billion is paid by Medicare and Medicaid (CBO January 2007) or 24% is already paid out by the government. This genius says that we spend more than any other country but then forgets we have the third largest population in the world. The US has a population of about two-thirds of the entire European Union. Only China and India have more people and we know that they are at the same level of health care as us. As for the WHO ranking, let's look at the results:
Death Rate: US 8/1000 people; UK 10/1000 people; Serbia 14/1000 people
Life Expectancy: US 78 years; UK 79 years; Serbia 74 years
(CIA Factbook)
(WOW what a difference in the results...we are so much worse off than the UK and so much similar to Serbia, puh-leez)

We spend twice as much per capita on health care as European countries, but we are twice as sick with chronic disease. [Ya, and they also have people waiting on long lists for life-saving surgeries and they also block access to health care for those who need it but don't live the life the government approves]

How can this be so? The problem is that we have systematically neglected wellness and disease prevention. Currently in the United States, 95 percent of every health care dollar is spent on treating illnesses and conditions after they occur. But we spend peanuts on prevention. [Our word of the day: Prevention. The original point to insurance (this is waht everyone means when speakiing of "health care") was for catastrophes.]

The good news in these dismal statistics is that, by reforming our system and focusing on fighting and preventing chronic disease, we have a huge opportunity. We can not only save hundreds of billions of dollars; we can also dramatically improve the health of the American people. [Since when is it the responsibility of the Government to improve the health of the American people. Where is it in the constitution? In the Declaration of Independence? We need to leave it up to the American people to decide what they do to their health.]

Consider this: Right now, some 75 percent of health care costs are accounted for by heart disease, diabetes, prostate cancer, breast cancer, and obesity. What these five diseases and conditions have in common is that they are largely preventable and even reversible by changes in nutrition, physical activity, and lifestyle. [Two points on this one. 80% of health care costs occur for those of the senior persuasion (it's a fact of life) many of the problems he lists happen more commonly in the senior age. Secondly, considering this article is about what the government wants to do to American health care...I don't think the "changes in lifestyle" will be a suggestion, more likely a government mandate.]

Listen to what Dr. Dean Ornish told our Senate health committee: “Studies have shown that changing lifestyle could prevent at least 90 percent of all heart disease. Thus, the disease that accounts for more premature deaths and costs Americans more than any other illness is almost completely preventable, and even reversible, simply by changing lifestyle.” [Of course, Dr Ornish would be doing the preventing...and charging for it. Does prevention really save that much money? I think that is still up in the air. Again...the "change in lifestyle" will not be optional when the government flips the bill.]

It’s not enough to talk about how to extend insurance coverage and how to pay for health care – as important as those things are. It makes no sense just to figure out a better way to pay the bills for a system that is dysfunctional, ineffective, and broken. We also have to change the health care system itself, beginning with a sharp new emphasis on prevention and public health. [So he admits it...cost means nothing. Just print more money.]

We also have to realize that wellness and prevention must be truly comprehensive. It is not only about what goes on in a doctor’s office. It encompasses workplace wellness programs, community-wide wellness programs, building bike paths and walking trails, getting junk food out of our schools, making school breakfasts and lunches more nutritious, increasing the amount of physical activity our children get, and so much more. [If you haven't watched the movie "Demolition Man" with Sly Stallone, watch it because it really sounds like this paragraph. "Be well fellow citizen."]

I am heartened by the fact that the major players in this endeavor – Democrats and Republicans alike – all “get it” when it comes to prevention and public health. We all agree that it must be at the heart of reform legislation. [It's bi-partisan so it's cool, okay.]

As President Obama said in his speech to Congress earlier this year: “[It is time] to make the largest investment ever in preventive care, because that's one of the best ways to keep our people healthy and our costs under control.” [Since when has President Obama been worried about how much something costs? $787 billion there, $1 trillion here.]

No question, comprehensive health reform is an extraordinarily ambitious undertaking. But what makes me optimistic is that all the major groups are playing a constructive role, including those that opposed the 1993-94 health reform effort. Everyone agrees that the current system is broken. [It could be said that the health reform effort of the 1930s is partially at fault here.]

Winston Churchill famously said that “Americans always do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else.” Well, we’ve tried everything else, and it has led us to bad health and the brink of bankruptcy. [Winston Churchill also said "However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results." I wonder what Churchill would have said when the UK health care system denies him treatment for stroke (he died of stroke) because of his ever-present cigar smoking?]

Comprehensive health reform legislation is our opportunity to change the paradigm. We are going to extend health insurance to every American. And we are going to give our citizens access to a 21st century health care system – one that is focused on helping us to live healthy, active, happy lives. [Living a healthy, active and happy life is up to us. It is up to the individual. Will the government "change" my mind if I'm not happy? Watch "Brazil" or read 1984. Aren't these works supposed to be fiction and not how things should be?]

President Obama claims that universal health care, or the "public option", will reduce costs. Creating a health care insurance branch to the government will kill the private health care insurance industry and boost prices sky-high. Creating a system that does not require a profit (it has an Obamabudget with no bottom just print more money) will charge its customers nothing while paying to health care providers a lot of money. The private companies out there cannot compete against this because they need to run a profit to stay in business. You cannot stay in business if your competitor gives away their product for free. President Obama will then appoint a health care board to run this system. He will appoint doctors and businessmen who believe and follow his steps. (Another Churchill quote: "Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room.") If this Czarist Board decides that the elderly are burdening the system they will restrict access. Nothing will stop them. Former Democrat/Progressive Governor of Colorado, Roy Romer has been quoted to say "The elderly have a duty to die." This is how most progressives think. It has its roots in eugenics (no, not the study of Eugenes) and progressivism. Do you remember the stupid classroom activity 6 people in a 5-person boat...who do we throw overboard. This is progressive thought. I reject the premise. Just build a bigger boat. Capitalism and the economy are not zero-sum games...they can grow...OK, I'm getting into another posting another day.

President Obama is trying to kill the private health care system. He will try to do it by injecting gobs of the virus of socialism into our health care system. A health care system already infected by what I will call socialitis progressus, a virus of our civilization, that has been slowly poisoning our country. Socialitis progressus has slowly cost us our individualism. Fortunately, we have the antidote, together we can redress our representatives, educate others and VOTE.