Only the Healthy Need Apply: Health Care and Our Future

Recently, the Senate announced an aggressive timetable to bring comprehensive health care “reform” legislation to the floor of both houses of Congress and have it passed by early fall of this year. With democratic majorities in both houses, the passage of the legislation would be assured. It would seem as though nothing can stop this leap into a socialist ‘nirvana’.

Not so fast, Marxist breath! A new obstacle has appeared on the horizon which may derail this health care gravy train. Ironically enough, it concerns the basic economic law of supply and demand asserting it’s ugly little head. It seems we are becoming short on the supply of doctors in our current semi-socialist health care system, and the Medicare monster is largely to blame.

In an April 26th article appearing in the New York Times, Robert Pear writes that,

“Obama administration officials, alarmed at doctor shortages, are looking for ways to increase the supply of physicians to meet the needs of an aging population and millions of uninsured people who would gain coverage under legislation championed by the president.”

In other words, we have here an instance of a shortage of supply which is unable to meet the demand. But this is not simply a shortage of the supply of a product we are talking about here. This is a shortage of qualified people absolutely necessary to meet the demand that is anticipated should mandated universal health care become a reality.

The fact is simply this; we do not have enough primary care physicians to meet current demand let alone the inevitable large increase in demand for health care which would result in an environment of universal health care. In the same article for the Times, Pear writes that “Lawmakers from both parties say the shortage of health care professionals is already having serious consequences.”

The article goes on to cite the fact that Massachusetts, which recently expanded government health care coverage, is now experiencing a crisis in physician supply. This has meant that we have fewer doctors to take care of larger numbers of people. In fact, because of this 2006 law, the “ratio of primary care doctors to population is higher in Massachusetts than in other states.”

If this current shortage cannot be addressed, the future of health care in our land is in jeopardy, and the idea of universal health care for all Americans may well be in the Intensive Care Unit, if not terminal.

However, the omniscient, all-wise government is not blind to the problem. With apologies to Bill O’Reilly, they are “looking out for you,”. Even now there are some solutions being proposed to meet this crisis. One is to increase Medicare payments to primary care physicians. In order to find these funds, the proposal suggests lowering Medicare reimbursements to high-paid specialists, something these specialists are not likely to take lying down. Other proposals include increasing enrollment in medical schools and residency training programs, and encouraging a greater use of nurse practitioners for primary care. Expanding the National Health Service Corps, which helps get health care practitioners to rural and poor neighborhoods is another option being considered. With these solutions in place, perhaps the current shortage in supply can be brought to a place where the current demand can be reasonably met without a large increase in costs. One thing seems sure though, someone will pay a larger amount just to solve the current problem. Remember, we are dealing with a law of economics here, the law of supply and demand. According to that law, a shortage of supply or an increase in demand for any product will result in an increase in the price. In the case of health care in the U.S., we are presently experiencing both of these phenomena! If we assume that the currently proposed solutions actually work (a dubious admission at best) to increase the supply of physicians enough to better meet the current demand, we still have a large problem facing us even without a government program for universal health care. That is the problem of our aging society in which ever larger numbers of people are going to demand more primary and specialist health care. More and more people, as they live longer in our land, are going to become eligible for Medicare. The Medicare and Medicaid systems we have now are ill-equipped to deal with present day health care demands, as almost everyone attests to. Soon, many millions more retirees and elderly will come on the rolls for these services, and the demand will soar. If we add a universal health care system into the mix, the demand will become astronomical.

If one analyzes this situation from a logical and economic standpoint, the following facts emerge. FIRST, it is virtually impossible to increase the supply of physicians to the point where the number will be adequate to address the needed demand of a universal health care system. The supply of physicians cannot be increased in the same way a factory-made product can. We cannot simply manufacture more doctors on an assembly line until we have enough of the “product.” It might be feasible to increase doctor supply by increasing economic incentives to become a doctor. But that will mean an increase in the cost of health care. And that will at the least mean an increase in taxes to pay for these incentives. Even then, it cannot be assured that enough people will become the doctors which will be needed.

SECOND, That the demand will increase is indisputable. As has already been mentioned, this is bound to happen even without universal health care coming to pass. Besides the facts of the increasing population of the elderly, we have the increase in illegal immigrants whom we have obligated ourselves to care for. This includes giving most health care for little or no cost to them. But as with all things, somebody pays, and if you guessed it was the average Joe taxpayer, give yourself a gold star! This is helping drive our health care dilemma to new heights even now. Imagine what a nightmare this will become under universal health care!

THIRD, the Obama administration will notallow anything to stand in the way of bringing about a universal health care system in the United States. It is far more than a political maneuver on the part of President Obama. He is an ideologue especially concerning this particular idea. He is a “true believer” in socialism, no matter what he or others might choose to call it. His record as a politician before he came to the presidency, and more so since, amply demonstrates this.

To sum up, ONE the supply of physicians cannot meet current demand and certainly will not be able to meet the future demand of a universal health care system. TWO, the demand for health care will increase to almost unimaginable levels under a universal health care system. THREE, a universal heath care system in the United States will almost certainly come to pass. However, this would seem to describe an impossible situation. All three of these conditions cannot exist as they are. The tension will become unbearable between supply and demand. The structure will not hold and the entire health care system will collapse under it’s own weight. It would appear we have a case of a ticking time bomb with no way to defuse it.

But there are those who can foresee this future explosion in health care. In fact, there are certainly those within the Obama administration, perhaps even the president himself, who have already foreseen this and they have planned accordingly. The health care system in our land truly is headed for a severe crisis. The operative word here is crisis.

Right after he was chosen as Obama’a Chief of Staff, Rahm Emmanuel made a statement concerning the economic “crisis” to the effect that every crisis is an “opportunity” to take radical action on the government’s behalf. What is meant is that the time of crisis is the time to propose that the government exercise greater and newer power in order to remedy the crisis. In addition, the more severe the crisis, the easier it will be to increase the power of government.

If it is true that we are headed for a severe health care crisis, then, according to the administration’s own philosophy, we are also headed for a further increase in government power. That is exactly what should be expected because an expansion of power will be necessary in order to ameliorate the collapse of health care in the United States. In point of fact, it is not simply an expansion of government power that will be needed, but a government takeover of the entire health care system!

It should be made clear that this is not just a takeover of the health care insurance industry where the government actually becomes the insurer. That is a given because that is what the president is now trying to make a reality. In order for the crisis to be managed (it cannot be solved as will be seen), it will be necessary for the government to control both the supply and demand sides of the health care industry! Take a moment and absorb that statement.

What this means is that the federal government will attempt to exert full control over both the demand for health care, as well as the supply of health care. In order for that to happen, there will need to be some measure of control over the quantity and quality of physicians, and the numbers of people who will receive health care. A common name for that kind of control is rationing. Physicians themselves will become government employees, because private practice will never be able to produce the needed numbers of physicians. This means that medical education will need to be mass produced as well. I shudder to think of the quality of medical care which a government school and employment will produce. If you are a veteran and have had to deal with the VA Medical system, you have a small idea of what awaits.

In the same way, all kinds of health care delivery will be determined by the government. They will determine when and if you visit a doctor for whatever malady, when and if you get treated and how long you will have to wait for treatment and medicines. In fact, it is not that difficult to imagine the government mandating certain behaviors for people in order to prevent diseases of whatever sort. This could easily enter into the arena of diet and drink, levels of exercise being required, high risk behaviors being banned and eventually many “healthy” behaviors themselves being required. In other words, you had better enjoy your steaks and beer now, because it’ll be tofu and water as a steady diet in the future, whether you want it that way or not.

It is likely those measures will not suffice to reduce demand enough for the health care “supply” to adequately meet it. There is another, more sinister way to reduce the demand for health care which will become available to the government. That way will be much easier to encourage once the government has grown to the mammoth proportions deemed necessary to give us all the fine, quality health care that will be promised. That way is to simply reduce the number of people who require health care. And the most efficient way to accomplish this is to reduce the number of people period. The most efficient and least intrusive way to do that is to reduce the numbers of people who come into the world along with reducing the numbers of people at the end of life who need some “extra” care. Thus abortion on demand switches gears a bit to emphasize not abortion as demanded by the choice of the mother, but instead abortion as demanded by the choice of the government. Of course this will all be properly regulated and controlled and licensed and taxed. There will also be a necessary department of the government created and tasked with making euthanasia of those who are living less than productive and enjoyable lives an efficient industry all it’s own. Perhaps it could be called the Department for End of Life Transaction Authority, or DELTA. Wouldn’t that make a keen acronym to add to the Fed’s alphabet soup?

If this sounds a bit far-fetched to you, it shouldn’t. We are already entering an era of government control over companies such as GM. I know one commentator who now says that GM should stand for “Government Motors” instead of General Motors. Soon, under the auspices of environmentalism, new SUV’s will be banned from production at GM, as well as trucks and any large, comfortable and safe vehicle. The newest cars will have to be super “green” and the choice the consumer will have will slowly be narrowed down to stylized go-karts run on electricity and wind. This is happening right now in the car industry. Government control promises to be even more pervasive in the health care industry.

There is one aspect of all this that is far-fetched. Yet it is an extremely simple way to avoid all of this and the dire consequences to follow. If you haven’t yet guessed, dear reader, you can be forgiven. For, as simple as this is, it is also practically inconceivable. The way is…. for the Obama administration to drop it’s plans for universal health care coverage. That would be the prudent thing to do. That would be the proper thing to do. And that would be the patriotic thing to do for it would preserve a piece of our freedom which going ahead will almost certainly destroy.

But folks, I wouldn’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen. It’s bad for your health you know, and I’m not sure the OHCIC (Obama Health Care Insurance Company) would allow that kind of behavior.

I’m revdto and I’m just sayin’