When Obama or any other polititian talks about “health” care and saving money in the same breath their popularity sinks. In spite of much evidence to the contrary, there is a pervasive myth that the more one spends on hospitals and doctors (so-called “health” care but, in reality, disease care) the happier and longer-lived will be the population. Every time doctors have gone on strike and treated only life-threatening disease, average mortality has decreased. Spending more money on doctors and hospitals above a minimum, far below what we spend today, only increases mortality because drugs are given and operations done, both potentially fatal, for less and less significant indications. Cubans spend at most 4% of what the Americans spend per capita on doctors and hospitals and have a longer life expectancy. True health care is things like safe housing, safe sex, safe driving, garbage collection, clean water, control of addictions to alcohol, tobacco and junk food and immunization, things that doctors and hospitals don`t do. But every polititian who wants to get elected again must repeat the shibboleth, quality “health” care equals more money on doctors and hospitals.
President Obama couldn’t have knownJONATHAN COHN The New Republic
National Post
31 Aug 2009
The pundits are busy filing their reports on how President Obama blew it on health care reform. And while the health care fight is far from over — I remain convinced the Democrats will pass a bill, maybe even a good one — the pundits have a point….
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