By Marilyn M. Singleton, M.D., J.D. California’s state senate’s unipartisan passing of a sweeping single-payer health care bill, the Healthy California Act, has drawn attention to single payer as a solution to the decaying Affordable Care Act. The ACA decreased competition and plan availability in health insurance and leaves patients holding the bag of unaffordable […]
By Jane M Orient, M.D. There is one thing that supporters and detractors of Bernie Sanders might agree on: he seems to be honest about his convictions. He is an avowed socialist, instead of pretending to believe in a role for private insurance. Unlike Barack Obama, his answer to the question “Do you get to […]
This week’s health policy news roundup curated by Jane Orient, M.D. If ObamaCare is a disaster, then those who say it is “working” apparently want a disaster—for private insurance, private enterprise, and private medicine. The intention has been telegraphed for years. Search most articles by “reformers,” and you will find the word “fragmented” (= inefficient, […]
By Marilyn Singleton, MD, JD Since the day the Affordable Care Act was enacted, we have been subjected to the “repeal and replace” mantra. Replacement offerings are basically slimmed down versions of the ACA. A few brave souls have proposed a straightforward repeal. Of course, such bills were merely making political hay since Obama would […]
In celebrating the 50th anniversary of Medicare, its supporters are overlooking or denying the troublesome facts, writes cardiovascular surgeon Donald W. Miller, Jr., M.D., in the fall issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons. Almost immediately after enactment of Medicare and Medicaid, spending on medical care began to escalate, from 5.2 percent of […]
by AAPS Director, Richard Amerling, MD Years of debating liberal friends and colleagues has brought me to an understanding: This question is at the core of the debate. The absurd notion of a “right” to health care underlies the movement towards socialized medicine. If this right does exist, it becomes a moral imperative to guarantee […]
By Lawrence R. Huntoon, M.D., Ph.D. If you like the health insurance coverage you have now, and if you believe patients should be allowed to make their own decisions about their medical care and insurance coverage, ObamaCare is not for you. In addition to the fact that the supreme law of the land, our […]
Many critics of the Democrats’ “healthcare reform” call it “socialized medicine.” Advocates respond, condescendingly, that since the government would not own the means of production, and physicians would not be salaried by the American equivalent of the British National Health Service, this is not socialism. Physicians and hospitals would still be “private,” as in Canada.
On Aug 28, the Obama Administration hosted a nationwide call-in for physicians, in which more than 1,900 physicians participated. It was said to be “closed to the press” so that a “conversation” could occur.
The phrase “death panel” does not actually occur in any of the proposed “health care reform” bills. MoveOn.org has seized on Sarah Palin’s characterization of the outcome of “reform” in its mass email piece entitled “Top Five Health Care Reform Lies: and How to Fight Back”: “Lie #1: President Obama wants to euthanize your grandma!!!” […]