Politicized health care, the real illness

“You know,” I said to Greg Dattilo as we walked toward the Minnesota State Capitol building, “this is what is really wrong with health care.”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Well, we’re going to a legislative meeting where politicians are going to decide the future of our health care system. That’s what I mean.” The Minnesota Health Care Access Commission, chaired by two liberal politicians, was about to hear testimony. Well, it was really about to hear what it wanted to hear to justify further polarization of health care.

When Congress passed Medicare and Medicaid in 1965, it subjected health care to the pressures of elective politics.

Politicians love a void, because they step in and fill it. It’s really a vicious circle. They “solve” a problem and create new ones that they get to solve.

For instance, in 1960, 4.5 million elderly Americans had no health insurance (though they did have health care). In fact, about 22% of Americans went without health insurance, but no one went without health care.

Congress created Medicare and Medicaid and health care spending went through the roof. Congress stepped in to solve the crisis and created HMOs. Double-digit spending ensued. All across America, legislators got into the act, and someone invented the uninsured statistic to prove that politicians needed to do even more.

That bothersome uninsured rate, by the way, has held pretty much steady during the last many years, but it is The Big Crisis of Today which only politicians can solve. Hence, a Health Care Access Commission must meet and decide the fate of our health care system.
Micro-managing health care is a politician’s dream. Tens of billions of dollars are at stake, and interest groups pay big money to get a politician’s ear. The sheet power of even an average state legislator is magnified through their vote on the floor of the house or senate, or better yet (for them), in committee.

What I am looking for are politicians who want to consumerize health care, placing the power of shaping our system into the hands of We the People (what a novel idea; free people making their own decisions about how to live). It takes a Big Man or Big Woman to give up so much power voluntarily, and this is what is really wrong with U.S. health care.

Pollsters tell us that US health care sits atop election year political issues, but not in the way it should. Rather than ask government to back away, American’s misunderstanding of the role of government and politics begs politicians to do more.

Those who have watched health care reform for decades believe that Americans do not have the stomach for government-run health care. Were this true, we would expect a backlash among voters during the next five years, as Congress, a new president, legislators, and governors – politicians – work to solve our current crisis. I worry about this, because I see that few people understand how dangerous and unhealthy such a system will be. What follows after the imposition of a government health care system? Decades more of politicians deciding our health care future.

Politics is what is really wrong with US health care.