Opinion
Zack Cunningham: Obama’s statement on health care should make us nervous
When my world drifts away from sports, I am often attracted to issues of a political nature regarding our world and society.
President Barack Obama said something a few days ago during a conference with the American Medical Association that has been either largely overlooked or ignored by many journalistic outlets across the nation.
In trying to woo the country to accept his new government health-care package, Obama said, “I’ll be honest, in some countries that have a single-payer system, it works pretty well.”
My first reaction to that statement was to ask the president to whom he is referring.
Which country in the civilized world has a successful single-payer system?
It sure isn’t the United Kingdom. Or Canada. Or Spain.
Yet, those countries possess the types of systems it seems we are now inevitably destined to replicate.
Say what you will about Rush Limbaugh, but I thought he made a good point on his show the other day while taking a call from a Canadian who wanted to discuss the much-heralded Ontario health-care system.
The caller referred to a man he knew who had Stage 4 melanoma and several inoperable tumors on his heart.
The board of legislators who make the decisions about which physicians are approved in Ontario said the patient was only approved for one doctor.
Limbaugh said that’s the word that should send chills up your spine, “approved.”
The debate now is over whether we, as the United States, are heading toward a similar system in which our choice of doctors will need to be approved by a politburo of sorts to tell us whom we can see and what procedures we can undertake.
This leads me back to the original statement by Obama.
From the Canadian caller’s perspective, it wouldn’t seem that Canada, based on that specific premise, has a single-payer system that works “pretty well.”
Later in the speech, Obama tried to soothe the fears of doctors and others who oppose his plan by saying he’s not going to implement such a government-run system.
I thought this was an incredibly disingenuous thing to say because, from a thematic standpoint, the two are indistinguishable.
A government-run system such as the one Obama is proposing is a single-payer system, much like the Canadian caller described.
If Obama thinks some countries have an effective single-payer system, why does he approach it in such a cautious manner?
If his system will emulate those of “successful systems,” and why wouldn’t it, there shouldn’t be any need to play it down or apologize for it.
It doesn’t surprise me, in the end, that a lot of media outlets chose to omit Obama’s statement in their coverage, but to be honest, I don’t think it really matters.
It’s obvious that Obama has high praise for single-payer systems or he wouldn’t be pushing one in the first place.
To hear him say it out loud doesn’t confirm that any more in my mind.
I guess I should be thankful that, in my youth, I don’t have any pressing medical concerns, yet, that would have to be reviewed by a government bureau that is “looking out” for my well-being.
But that doesn’t stop me from being nervous about what may or may not be in store a few decades down the road.
Zack Cunningham can be reached at 817-641-2441, ext. 2335
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