Health Care Debate: The Fight of Our Lives

Cory Truax, Health Care

Of course, the central focus of all political energy in America right now is health care legislation. The debate has become so intense and involved, in fact, that I don’t believe it to be an overstatement to say that we are currently in the most significant domestic policy debate since Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal.

The speed with which the debate and potential legislation moved during July made any attempt of capturing it in a column almost futile. However, now that we’re in recess, and the town halls are taking place, I felt compelled to put my analysis to the keyboard and then out here for consumption.

Below, I hope to make apparent a few items. First, we all need to be sure everyone understands the president’s and Congress’s goal. To say it tactfully, they’ve been less than forthcoming, and we’ll straighten out the true motivation and goal of the Left on this debate.

I will also illustrate the absolute intellectual bankruptcy and absurdity of a “Public Option.” From there, I’ll give you an analysis of where we are now and what I believe will ultimately take place. So, here we go.

THE LEFT’S ACTUAL GOAL

The evidence is too overwhelming for me to be accused of conspiracy-mongering on this one. The video support is beyond compelling. Here’s just a few examples:

• Barney Frank says Public Option should lead to Single-Payer
• Obama says he supports Single-Payer
• Congresswoman Schakowsky says Public Option will put Private Insurance out of business
• Liberal thinker says it’s obvious that Public Option will become Single-payer.
• ONE GREAT VIDEO TO SUM IT ALL UP

To say it kindly, you’d have to be… uh… thick, dull, moronic, Joe Biden … obtuse not to see the obvious goal of the president’s original health care proposals. Moreover, this connection between having a public option and then ultimately a completely government-owned and operated health care system isn’t a hard one to make or understand.

ABSURDITY OF THE PUBLIC OPTION

The thought that creating a a government-run insurance plan would create more competition– as President Obama has asserted– is on its face ludicrous. A prerequisite to perfect competition is that all participants in the market begin with the same opportunities and challenges. This would not be the case with a Public Option.

Government — as we’ve seen for over a century– allows itself to run in the red. Indeed, if the federal government were a business, it would have been bankrupt long ago. Consequently, all of its programs are bankrupt. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other entitlments swim in red ink. And government is allowed to do that.

Within a market of health insurance providers, one competitor would be allowed to run one-hundred percent in the red — completely bankrupt– and stay in business. Cigna can’t do that. Blue Cross/Blue Shield can’t do that. No other company can.

The result here is obvious — and the goal is stated in the videos linked above. The Public Option will without any room for doubt put every private health insurance provider out of business. Period. Understand this incontrovertible truth: if Congress and the President create a Public Option, you will lose your private insurance eventually. We will absolutely all have health care coverage provided, rationed, and sometimes denied by federal government bureaucrats.

WHERE WE STAND

We survived the first blow. For a while, I genuinely believed the Dems in Congress were going to commit the necessary political suicide and push this disaster through before August. Thank God they love power; otherwise, we’d all be government-covered very soon.

Now that we’re on recess, though, the game has changed faces almost completely. In fact, a recent Rasmussen poll says that 54% of Americans would prefer NO health care reform over the current Congressional model. We’ve seen many other polls showing that support for anything the president has proposed on healthcare is waning at an incredible clip.

Thus, those of us in favor of reforming health care in a much different manner find ourselves in a tenuously confident position.

MY PREDICTION

After all that’s said, we have to ask: so what’s going to happen?

I believe politicians love power more than they love their children or own lives. They love winning elections and will do anything to remain powerful. Therefore, for their own political well-being, the Democrats won’t be forcing a Public Option through Congress this year.

Ultimately, a bill will pass. The White House — and therefore Katie Couric, Brian Williams, and Charlie Gibson — will call it a “health insurance reform bill.” Moreover, the bill will contain almost nothing the President said he originally wanted. It certainly won’t create a new healthcare program run by the feds. The bill will likely cap premiums insurance companies can charge on certain individuals or income levels and ban refusing coverage for certain pre-existing conditions.

I would further assert that the media will herald the passage of this bill as the single largest win for a first-term president ever. In reality, we will have beaten this terrible idea, and bloodied up the president’s popularity along the way. Nevertheless, the narrative will be a big win for President Obama.

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Cory Truax @ August 15, 2009