Health Care and the 2,000 Page Camel
“Do you know what a camel is?” It was a strange question, but since it came from one of my uncles who retired as a university professor, I knew the answer would be interesting. So what is a camel? “It's a horse assembled by a committee of PhDs,” replied my uncle. Excellent point. Something happens when you assemble in a room a group of people who fancy themselves as the best and the brightest in a given field, something that in biblical terms is best described as a thing which, “passeth all understanding.”
Back in 2009, President Obama wrote to Senator Max Baucus and the late Senator Ted Kennedy that, "We should ask why places like the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, and other institutions can offer the highest quality care at costs well below the national norm." The answer appears to be that the Mayo Clinic knows how to reject a 2,000 page camel when it sees one. Today's in-box includes news that a group of medical providers has taken the measure of the President's health care law and found it wanting in virtually every category except that of bureaucratic incomprehensibility and heavy-handed regulation. Describing it as an “unusual rebuke” (to which one answers, “why should it be unusual?”), the AP story reports:
...an umbrella group representing premier organizations such as the Mayo Clinic wrote the administration Wednesday saying that more than 90 percent of its members would not participate, because the rules as written are so onerous it would be nearly impossible for them to succeed.
Donald Fisher, President of the American Medical Group Association, representing close to 400 large medical groups who provide services for approximately 1 in 3 Americans said, “It's not just a simple tweak, it's a significant change that needs to be made.” I suppose someone can tell Nancy Pelosi that people have finally read the bill that had to be passed before anyone would know what was in it, and they have concluded that this monstrosity simply will not work. The courts may or may not ultimately rule it Constitutional. But the people who have to ultimately implement this thing want no part of it.
Describing the laws provisions as, "overly prescriptive, operationally burdensome, and the incentives are too difficult to achieve to make this voluntary program attractive," the medical group association sees huge problems on the horizon in a law that, according to the story, “rapidly exposes them to potential financial losses.”
All of which begs the following question: Why were the rules fashioned to be so burdensome as to jeopardize the very survival of these entities in the first place? As Obama himself put it, “I don't think we're going to be able to eliminate employer coverage immediately. There's going to be potentially some transition process.” Or, as Barney Frank said, “...we don't have the votes for it. I wish we did. I think if we get a good public option, it could lead to single payer and that's the best way to reach single payer.” Anyone want to wager that this “overly prescriptive, operationally burdensome” camel is designed to precisely to squash private providers and usher in the era of a benevolent government provider?
History is replete with central planners who set out to make a better horse and instead brought forth a lopsided, smelly, obnoxious beast who spits and bites those who feed it while requiring more and more of them. Republican members of congress enjoy the trappings of office right now courtesy of an electorate that wants this law stopped, repealed, defunded, and killed. We may not be allowed to see Bin Laden's corpse, but we'd sure like to see this odious law become fish food.
- Comment (25)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (1)
- Pages:
- 1
- 2
- Pages:
- 1
- 2
Comments :
Jul '10
Re: Health Care and the 2,000 Page Camel
Don't worry, Our side has a solution.
May '10
Re: Health Care and the 2,000 Page Camel
I don't know a single doctor. They're all married. But anyway, I don't know one doctor who plans on adhering to this. This stitched together assemblage of dug up body parts seems expressly designed to produce a nation of scofflaws, like Prohibition.
It's been ruled unconstitutional, and will be again. But the administration keeps whistling past the freshly turned graveyard singing "it's the law of the land" in a quavering tremolo.
This law isn't pining for the fjords. It wouldn't voom if you shot 1,000 volts through it. It is an ex-law, and what's more, it never was in effect.
Jul '10
Re: Health Care and the 2,000 Page Camel
What a cynic you are, Dave.
Thank heaven for people like the lady in front of me on the 101 Freeway, whose bumper sticker said, "Tax the Rich. Free Health Care is a Human Right"
Re: Health Care and the 2,000 Page Camel
Kenneth: What a cynic you are, Dave.
Thank heaven for people like the lady in front of me on the 101 Freeway, whose bumper sticker said, "Tax the Rich. Free Health Care is a Human Right" · May 12 at 7:16pm
Yes, and free food, free housing, free lollipops. Everything should be free presumably, except that lady's labor. Assuming she works, of course.
Nov '10
Re: Health Care and the 2,000 Page Camel
Dave Carter
Anyone want to wager that this “overly prescriptive, operationally burdensome” camel is designed to precisely to squash private providers and usher in the era of a benevolent government provider?
From the time Obamacare was first proposed Rush Limbaugh has been saying it is intended to fail, to dismantle private insurance markets in the process, and finally to usher in single payor.
Edited on May 12, 2011 at 7:24pmRe: Health Care and the 2,000 Page Camel
Kennedy Smith: ... It's been ruled unconstitutional, and will be again. But the administration keeps whistling past the freshly turned graveyard singing "it's the law of the land" in a quavering tremolo.
This law isn't pining for the fjords. It wouldn't voom if you shot 1,000 volts through it. It is an ex-law, and what's more, it never was in effect. · May 12 at 7:14pm
Keep hope alive, Kennedy.
Jul '10
Re: Health Care and the 2,000 Page Camel
Dave Carter
Kenneth: What a cynic you are, Dave.
Thank heaven for people like the lady in front of me on the 101 Freeway, whose bumper sticker said, "Tax the Rich. Free Health Care is a Human Right" · May 12 at 7:16pm
Yes, and free food, free housing, free lollipops. Everything should be free presumably, except that lady's labor. Assuming she works, of course. · May 12 at 7:21pm
You forgot taxpayer-funded abortions.
I don't know if she works, but she apparently hadn't washed her car or her hair for a decade or so.
Re: Health Care and the 2,000 Page Camel
Ducatista
Dave Carter
Anyone want to wager that this “overly prescriptive, operationally burdensome” camel is designed to precisely to squash private providers and usher in the era of a benevolent government provider?
From the time Obamacare was first proposed Rush Limbaugh has been saying it is intended to fail, to dismantle private insurance markets in the process, and finally to usher in single payor. · May 12 at 7:22pm
Edited on May 12 at 07:24 pm
I've seen no empirical evidence to counter Limbaugh's claim either. I suspect this kind of thing is exactly why Rush said he wanted Obama to fail. Why would we want anyone to succeed at diminishing human freedom?
Jul '10
Re: Health Care and the 2,000 Page Camel
Dave Carter
Kenneth: What a cynic you are, Dave.
Thank heaven for people like the lady in front of me on the 101 Freeway, whose bumper sticker said, "Tax the Rich. Free Health Care is a Human Right" · May 12 at 7:16pm
Yes, and free food, free housing, free lollipops. Everything should be free presumably, except that lady's labor. Assuming she works, of course. · May 12 at 7:21pm
You forgot taxpayer-funded abortions.
I don't know if she works, but she apparently hadn't washed her car or her hair for a decade or so.
You know, I have a habit, when I see a car festooned with Lefty bumper-stickers, to pull up and take a look at the driver. About 90% of the time, it's a chicken-beaked, pinched-face middle-age woman who looks like she never had a date in her life. The other 10% are pony-tailed geezers.
Coexist, brother Dave.
Aug '10
Re: Health Care and the 2,000 Page Camel
Well, there are physicians' groups and there are physicians' groups. Whichever one props up the New England Journal of Medicine comes out every week in favor of government-rationed care. These pieces are not editorials, by the way; "Editorials" are in a separate section. These are in "Perspective" - the word is ominously singular - and they are represented as scholarly articles.
I look at this magazine at all only because it used to have biochemistry review articles in it, and also book reviews. None of that now. I believe its previous editor-in-chief went on to become a "professor of social medicine" at Harvard. You get the idea.
Mar '11
Re: Health Care and the 2,000 Page Camel
When government mandates that its citizens must have goods and services, its citizens all eventually become slaves.
Sep '10
Re: Health Care and the 2,000 Page Camel
I've seen the work of enough well-meaning committees of PhDs to know that Dave's uncle is absolutely right. Moreover, people with graduate degrees in Public Health--what a boondoggle that is--are the last people who should be put in charge of anything.
Recently I met some of our graduates who are actuaries in the health sector. These are people whose job it is to calculate risk for health insurers. They all said that they believe that Obamacare is intentionally designed to bankrupt the insurance companies. The government will then be the only option.
Aug '10
Re: Health Care and the 2,000 Page Camel
I don't think you're being fair to camels, Dave -- not even those of, um, generous size. ObamaCare can't even kneel for its passengers or lope over shifting sand dunes.
ObamaCare does, however (and alas), have its nose under the tent. Well and truly.
Jun '10
Re: Health Care and the 2,000 Page Camel
Dave Carter
Kenneth: What a cynic you are, Dave.
Thank heaven for people like the lady in front of me on the 101 Freeway, whose bumper sticker said, "Tax the Rich. Free Health Care is a Human Right" · May 12 at 7:16pm
Yes, and free food, free housing, free lollipops. Everything should be free presumably, except that lady's labor. Assuming she works, of course. · May 12 at 7:21pm
If she's a stay-at-home mother, her labor probably is free.
I've found a person's attitude toward the right to healthcare is directly proportional to their need for healthcare.
Healthcare is broken. Obamacare is worse. We have a majority it the House. So, what are we going to do about fixing thing?
Jan '11
Re: Health Care and the 2,000 Page Camel
Medicine is not a science. Oh sure, science studies the biological breakdowns in the human body, as well as the chemical effects of each pharmaceutical, and so on. But the practice of medicine is always a matter of prudence and judgment, not merely a mechanical following of procedures. A person may have a symptom, the doctor can't focus on just that. Does the patient have a heart condition that would be stressed by a particular treatment? Is he allergic to the medicine? (Not being a doctor, I can't elaborate all the factors he must consider.)
The diagnosis and treatment, therefore, always depend on imperfect information. In turn, imperfect information is the essence of a "profession." You go to a doctor or plumber or lawyer (or any other "professional") because when you don't have perfect information, you have to rely on the next best thing ... you have to take an educated guess. The professionals offer their experience, training, and judgment to improve the education of your guess. But it's still an art, not a science.
Government, on the other hand, works according to defined procedures. Government sucks at art. That's why it will suck at medicine.
May '10
Re: Health Care and the 2,000 Page Camel
Fair point, Midge. Camels are actually rather well constructed for their role as ships of the desert. Obamacare was well constructed to be a failure leading to single-payer. They just didn't anticipate the magnitude of the backlash.
Aug '10
Re: Health Care and the 2,000 Page Camel
Kenneth
You know, I have a habit, when I see a car festooned with Lefty bumper-stickers, to pull up and take a look at the driver. About 90% of the time, it's a chicken-beaked, pinched-face middle-age woman who looks like she never had a date in her life. The other 10% are pony-tailed geezers.
Coexist, brother Dave. · May 12 at 7:29pm
Not attempting hijack Dave's thread. (And another wonderful thread it is, btw.) But a buddy of mine and I have a theory that any car "festooned" (a great word) with bumper stickers has a 90% likelihood of belonging to a Left-Wing nut job. Conservatives, as a group, seem less willing to deface their cars for the cause.
Aug '10
Re: Health Care and the 2,000 Page Camel
Robert E. Lee
I've found a person's attitude toward the right to healthcare is directly proportional to their need for healthcare.
Not in my case -- and I know other people with multiple, chronic problems who can't think of their future under ObamaCare without contracting a case of the galloping heeby-jeebies (and that's on top of their other problems).
I've had medical bills pile up so I couldn't pay them all, and I went into debt and wrecked my credit. But is that too big a price to pay for health?
After all, if you get better, you can eventually settle your debts and repair your credit.
If you never get better (because, say, you had to wait too long in line for treatment or the government decided your disease was too "uneconomical" to treat), then your future as a productive person is pretty much ruined. So maybe you have a better credit rating, but no life. Seems like a lousy trade-off to me.
Mar '11
Re: Health Care and the 2,000 Page Camel
The AMGA, of which I am a member, is all the very large and medium sized medical groups in the nation. These are the people who know how to "aggregate patients". That is the term that is used, economies of scale because we treat patients like numbers on a spreadsheet. At the annual meeting this April in Wash. DC the assessment at every panel and every impromptu meeting was that the Acccountable Care Org structure of the healthcare bill was dead in the water and as the article said, even the biggest groups will not take part in a scheme where you may make or lose money this year, but you will not know until next year which it is.
The AMGA would like to make something like this work and they can't!
Aug '10
Re: Health Care and the 2,000 Page Camel
Robert E. Lee
Healthcare is broken. Obamacare is worse. We have a majority it the House. So, what are we going to do about fixing thing?
Well, you could start by repealing ObamaCare, but that would take more than a House majority.
As for some general fixes:
Healthcare is the sector of the economy where the government is most involved. That's why it's so broken.