Megyn Kelly hosted a panel of doctors to discuss the Affordable Care Act (aka Obama Care) yesterday – and I’m sure you’ll be shocked to know that all three of them opposed it. But what really was shocking was their reasoning that it would create too many patients which would negatively impact those who already have coverage. Rather than consider ways to increase health care providers, they all seemed to think the solution was to make sure there weren’t too many health care consumers. In other words, people should go without treatment so that those who already have coverage are not inconvenienced. Even worse, the doctors complained that too many people would “overuse” medical services.
The doctors complained that there’s already an “excess of patients,” that our system is “unsustainable as it is. We have emergency rooms are teeming as it is.”
But my personal favorite was that Obama Care makes medical care “too easy to overuse. They’re making insurance which should be for a rainy day too easy to overuse. You can use it even if you’re not sick.”
That’s right, this is a doctor complaining that people might seek medical attention too often if it’s too available and affordable.
It reminds me of the Republican health care plan Alan Grayson described in Congress a few years ago: 1. Don’t get sick; 2. And if you do get sick, die quickly.
“The insurance mandate is socialism, plain and simple.”
If it’s socialism, you’d have to buy it from the government, which would also tell you what doctor or hospital to go to. But you can buy health insurance from anybody, and you can get treated by the doctor and hospital you want. What’s socialist about that?
“Can’t you see, the government is making us buy insurance. We have no choice in the matter.”
Do you have a choice not to get hurt, or not to get sick? Why then do you want a choice not to have insurance to pay for it when you do?
States in fact already have an individual mandate for car insurance, and they have been putting uninsured drivers in jail for years.
“That’s different. Driving is a privilege.”
Then free health care must be a right in your book. Maybe this idea came from hospitals continuing to treat the uninsured the last half century.
The trade off to us living in a civilized society is that we have to follow rules we don’t agree with. In return, we get great many things, including goods and services that otherwise would be unavailable. But, we still have to pay for them. The mandate makes sure that we do.
What’s wrong with that?
