| Obama's Health-Care Plan: Doctors debate pros and cons |
Our universal health-care debate is the most popular article on our Web site—and there’s quite a continuing debate in the comments section. Now that Barack Obama is looking to implement universal health care, we contacted our debaters for a follow-up. This time, we asked, assuming a universal plan will happen, is President Obama headed in the right direction? According to Obama's Web site, as accessed in March 2009, some of the things his plan includes are:
The costs, says the site, will come from “rolling back the Bush tax cuts for Americans earning more than $250,000 per year and retaining the estate tax at its 2009 level.” In response to Obama’s first State of the Union speech, Louisiana's governor Bobby Jindal said: Republicans … stand for universal access to affordable health-care coverage. What we oppose is universal government-run health care. Health-care decisions should be made by doctors and patients, not by government bureaucrats. We believe Americans can do anything, and if we put aside partisan politics and work together, we can make our system of private medicine affordable and accessible for every one of our citizens. Our debaters wrote their arguments in early March. Details, such as Gov. Sebelius’s status (which Dr. Whelan mentions) may have changed by the time you read this. So what's the answer? We asked two experts: Assuming a universal plan will happen, is President Obama’s headed in the right direction? Here's their take. You can get in on the debate here .
Yes
The Obama health-care plan is headed in a positive direction by all historic indicators. It began with February’s expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program after years of failure, providing insurance to millions of additional vulnerable children. Then, the passage of the economic stimulus bill helped states maintain current levels of care for their poorest citizens. Now, a new secretary, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, with a dedicated commitment to the common good has been nominated. The administration has undertaken a summit at the White House to explore all the possibilities, with four particularly key objectives. The first is finding ways to insure every American. At a time of foreclosures and job losses, the last worry anyone needs is whether they can get thoughtful care with appropriate follow-up if an emergency befalls them. Current law provides for continued insurance under COBRA if a job is lost, but this is incredibly expensive for families—particularly if someone has no job. But SCHIP expansion aside, more than 40 million people still have no insurance. A second objective has been transparency, so the remarkably expensive enterprise of medical care doesn’t become a new pork barrel of inefficiency. This leads to the third goal: cost efficiency. Tremendous efficiencies are possible because they are currently being achieved by our economic competitors around the world. Increased health-care efficiencies were probably the leading engine for the economic expansion during the 1990s. The United States currently has the developed world’s most inefficient system, costing more than twice as much as other systems while performing poorly on many health indices. Thus, a fourth goal is heightened quality, like that supported by the significantly expanded medical research in the stimulus bill. Better health, after all, is a goal shared by everyone, and Obama has moved us a giant step closer by forcefully articulating these four objectives.
No
President Barack Obama’s health-care plan at best is not reform at all, and at worst will expand the poorest performing segments of our health-care system and further erode what little choice currently exists at the individual patient and provider level. “Universal health-care coverage,” according to the president’s plan, would be largely driven by enrollment in public programs, such as Medicaid and SCHIP, in which the government sets benefit levels and provider reimbursement rates. Being nominally “covered” in a public health insurance program is of little value if prohibitively low reimbursement rates and administrative hassles prevent physicians from accepting you as a patient. Although the patient is the central figure and the key decision maker in the health-care system, the president’s plan unfortunately appears to continue the paternalistic view that government, not the individual patient, should decide the value of health-care services. Individual patients, regardless of income level, are capable of making appropriate decisions about their own health care, given the proper incentives. Giving patients ownership of their health-care resources and choice over how those resources will be spent will also increase the demand for transparency about the cost and quality of services. Rather than attempting to control the behavior of payers and providers through mandates and price controls, the president should realign incentives by giving patients the financial support they need and allowing them to choose from a variety of insurance coverage options, according to their needs. This is the same system available to President Obama and all other federal employees. Ultimately, the goal of real reform should be for the government to stop trying to design and operate public health-insurance plans and instead focus on providing disadvantaged individuals with the necessary funds to buy into the same system that everyone else uses.
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Last updated and/or approved: December 2009. Comments (35)
  written by Mike , March 15, 2010 Be truthful. Did you sit there and read every word of all 1200 pages of this bill? My guess is no, you haven't. So stop being a hypocrite. I agree with Mel.  written by mel , February 26, 2010 Now I'm someone who would benefit from the program. I don't have healthcare. And according to what has been said about the bill, I would get healthcare if it were to pass. But, looking at it from someone who stands to benefit from the bill, I don't agree with it. The way it stands we are all talking about taking from people who worked their entire lives and did things the right way, and give it to the people who havent done things right. I for one know I havent done everything I need to do, and as far as im concerned taxing people who have worked to make good money so they can pay for my health insurance.... honestly I feel insulted. Everyone hates the rich because they have more money then you or I... But thats the idea that pushes the American dream... we all want to get there, we all want to have that money... but what I find so stupid.... is that everyone feels that the world owes them something... that everyone is deserving... that the government and the other people in the USA are there to help take care of them... my only advice is that we should all learn to take care of ourselves... and im no exception... you want health insurance? then go out and make yourself better and leave everyone else alone... the nation was founded on the belief that we can all work to improve ourselves, so rather then sitting there and waiting for the rest of the nation to take care of you help yourself  written by Hannah , February 25, 2010 Putting the responsibilties in the government's hands are insanely stupid and dangerous. The people should choose wheather or not they want health insurance. And also, people who are desperate and doesn't care about other people's needs will highly take advantage of this. The waits for seeing the doctor would increase and we'd have to have the doctor's get paid more obviously. If they are doing twice as much work as they used to, what's the point of keeping the same salary? People need to start thinking. Get out of here.  written by CAH , February 24, 2010 It sounds like you are just settling with the first idea that comes across the board, if it is not what the people want then why should we pass it. You don't make sense. Yes something does need to happen, but not this and we should never settle for what seems okay, think of what we are doing to our country.  written by tom , January 31, 2010 I am going to be 70 years of age. My father used to say that the doctors make too much money! Then he started having big problems. He started to see doctors and as he got better & better, his attitude toward them changed to "They earn every god-damned penny they make and then some!! Personally speaking, I would rather have a doctor operate on me than a professional athlete, unless he is a professional doctor also.  written by JackT , January 03, 2010 First of all whoever said canadian health care is good is obviously wrong, and if you do believe that then stay in YOUR COUNTRY. Don't come to America to get worked on. Because we have better doctors, medicine....... and a lot more. Maybe you think your health care is so great and wonderful but seriously its not. Free health care is so dificult meaning yes its cheap obviously but YOUR DOCTORS SUCK. So in the long run you either have cheap and crappy care or... great doctors who have been educated properly. I went to Canada for a skiing trip and i broke my hand and DO YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAID : "its very hard to tell which bone is broken" but THEY GAVE ME A FULL CAST. Its more like wtf who are you ? A doctor seriously. Well to move on Obama opened a door so we can dicuss it but for my life I would not pass the 1200 page crap for anything. So thank you Obama for doing that, but thats it :). Why I wouldnt pass it because the Government doesn't make up this country. The PEOPLE DO. But apparently Obama doesnt recognize the other 3 billion people in this country , because if he did he wouldnt want to become a communist country. Because that is exactly what he wants in his health care plan. Meaning he wants the government to tell you what you should get in terms of health. That has always been a peoples decision but obviously its not anymore.  written by JJ , January 01, 2010 There have been great points put across by many people. Up until now I have been completely against Obama's plan and now I stand on neutral ground. Here is why... Do I think that we need to insure all AMERICANS... YES!!! Do I think that Obama's plan was the direction we should take...Not really, but something needed to happen and up to this point, he is the only one that has made something happen. Everyone complains about how this is not the direction we should be going with health care, problem is that NO ONE ELSE has given a better option or any other option at that. I personally think that the problem lies with Insurance companies and ridiculous amounts of money gotten through lawsuits (can anyone say tort reform!). Do I think that doctors should be sued.. NO, (although there may be the occasional need due to negligence) they are still HUMAN and prone to HUMAN ERROR. I don't think that one person should get rich off another person's mistake. Another point to think about... I have talked to many older experienced doctors in the field of medicine and inquired about their salaries over the last 10 years, they all said it is been cut in half and continues to drop... That's funny doctors are charging more but getting paid less??????? Where is the money going? Insurance companies (malpractice), hospital charges (CEO's need there 500,000 bonuses at Christmas right), drug and equipment reps (some Orthopedic Reps are pulling in 7 figures... more than most doctors... that's strange). There are many other people who are taking the money that the doctors are charging. So in defense of Doctors, of which I am aspiring to become, they are far from the problem, they are just mixed in the middle of it and are the easiest targets. Do I support Obama's bill, if it will get our out of control health care system into check.... Absolutely!  written by Smarter than Manu , December 14, 2009 Dude, you need to work on your spelling. I don't trust anyone who can't spell "loser" and all the other misspelled words you typed. I also seriously doubt you read the whole bill as well.  written by Manu , November 08, 2009 Some of you people are straight up IDIOTS!!! You don't even read the full bill/plan that Obama wants to put in practice and you are willing to sigh your life on it! First of all Obama is the biggest idiot i've ever seen and he doesn't have a clue about conducting a country like ours! He hasn't done anything use full since he has set foot in that office and he wants to pass this health care plan that will ruin America just to get his name out there, that he accomplished something! WOW!! what a looser!.... and many of you guys out there are even worse than him! You have to be the stupidest fool in the universe to agree with "Obama's" health care before you acctually read and understand the full 1200 pages of the bill!!! Well, with that being said im not worried for now because i know for sure the bill will not pass! Nobody wants it exept for the low class people that are too lazy and dumb to get their own insurance!...I know it will not pass since most of the people in congress and in the senate disagree and a lot of those people are democrats! At least they have a tiny piece of brain left! Write comment
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