Ding Dong the Daschle’s Dead

I’m rejoicing tonight at the news of Tom Daschle’s withdrawal of his candidacy for Secretary of Health and Human Services.  The reason I’m rejoicing is two-fold.  First, Daschle was a liar and a crook.  If his nomination had gone through, it would have been a message to anyone of influence that paying taxes is merely a suggestion, while those without any clout would be footing the bill for all this new government chicanery.  Second, and more significantly, Daschles represents everything that is ideologically wrong with the Left’s approach to addressing issues in the   system.  Daschle wanted to transform   into a system that was run by the government, for the government, but solely at the expense of citizens and   providers.  His visions included nationalizing the   system, creating strict rules for providers that removed their ability to freely make choices and decisions that would benefit their patients, their employees, and themselves.  Daschles also hoped to centralize control of the existing government run/funded programs at the Federal level, rather than allowing the states to adapt the broad programs to their unique circumstances.

In the end, this was a win for the American people, a win for providers, and a win for all those who desire liberty and freedom from government interference in their everyday lives.  Let us make no mistake, this is merely a small setback for the Obama administration in their tireless march to remove individual freedoms from the public and providers in the realm of  .  It is my hope and prayer that his plans will continue to be thwarted in this arena, but that is certainly unlikely.

‘Guaranteed Affordable Choice”

“Guaranteed affordable choice” is, according to Dr. James Kimmey what we should be calling socialized(socialist) medicine these days.  That has a nice ring to it doesn’t it? People like guarantees; it makes them feel secure.  People like affordability; it’s one of the reasons they flock to Walmart.  Lastly, people really like choice.  It makes them feel like they have control, freedom, and intelligence, for choice is only given to those who have the ability to make informed choices right?  But, is  “guaranteed affordable choice” really what’s best for Americans, and is it even feasible?  I would posit that the answer to both of those questions.  Over the next several days, I will be unpacking why “no” should be the resounding answer out of the mouths of healthcare providers, politicians, and American citizens.

A final thought about government run, socialist medicine…or anything for that matter which involves government:

“The word ‘politics’ is derived from the word ‘poly’, meaning ‘many’, and the word ‘ticks’, meaning ‘blood sucking parasites’.”
-Larry Hardiman

Healthcare Policy: Right Makes Might? (1)

As the Senate grapples with the stimulus plan, especially the proposed major changes to the healthcare system, the question arises: what to do about healthcare?  To begin, this question hinges upon the answers to two basic, philosophical questions: is healthcare a right; and is healthcare something that is good, and thus worthy to be discussed alongside economics and foreign policy?  In this post, I’ll be looking at the former question, is healthcare a right?

We Americans love the concept of “rights”.  Everything, we say, is a right: free speech, freedom of religion, freedom from religion, sexuality, abortion, and now, to that list, we want to add healthcare.  Is healthcare really a right?  Should we amend the constitution to say, “life, liberty, and the pursuit of antibiotics for my viral cold”?  True, one may extrapolate that one has a right to healthcare because it is a part of life, which according to the Declaration, is an inalienable right.  However, I ask, does that truly fit within the concept of “rights”?  The rights spoken of in the constitution are better understood as freedoms, rather than obligations.  If we actually read the Constitution and Bill of Rights, we’ll see that the rights given to us are not in the positive, but rather in the negative; our “rights” are really restrictions placed on the formation of restrictions.  So, we have a freedom from restrictions placed on gatherings; we have a freedom from restrictions placed on speech; we have a freedom from excessive rules concerning the bearing of arms.  When understood this way, the concept of “healthcare as a basic right” falls apart.  Rather than “we have a right to healthcare”, it would read, “Congress shall make no law pertaining to the healthcare system.”  When viewed this way, the American healthcare system as a whole begins to look quite dubious.  However, this will never be given voice by public officials, because it is by very nature, odious to our American sensibilities.  We want our cake, and fast-food, cigarettes, alcohol, promiscuous sex, and laziness, and our healthcare too.  The idea of connecting our choices now to later health consequences escapes our minds, and yet we demand healthcare, because it is our “right”.  And, by placing it in the category as a “right”, we effectively remove it from the field of debate.  No one debates a “right”, because that is what makes America what it is.  If healthcare is a right, it has power, it has might, and it is untouchable.

Conservatives and liberals alike have fallen under this concept’s tyranny, for anything that has unquestionable power is tyrannical.  This is evidenced by debating the efficacy of universal healthcare and socialized medicine, rather than the far more basic question of healthcare’s connection to our everyday lives and choices, and its moral status.  By not asking these basic questions, we affirm this supposed “right’s” power over us.  By assigning healthcare the status of “right”, we assume deep, powerful, and wide-sweeping obligations to the protection and upholding of that right.  We lose the nuances and realities of justice, equality, and fairness that a right removes from any idea.  If healthcare is a right, every person deserves their full portion of healthcare.  However, that is impossible, untenable, and impractical, and so, healthcare cannot be a right.  It cannot be a right in the constitutional sense, in the moral sense, or in the practical sense.  Healthcare is not a right, and it certainly does not belong in an economic stimulus plan.

Class Disparity

Ahh, the timeless tale of those who have and those who have naught. No, I’m not talking about economics or wealth, but Human Anatomy and the rest of the classes I’ll take while in medical school. I find myself rich…rich in time after my grueling trials with Human Anatomy. Truly, while that class was “rich in content and detail (the only thing liquid about it, though, was my cadaver)”, I found myself very poor in available time. Not so with Cell Biology and Metabolism. I now have time to frolic over the details and subtleties of amino acid structure and meiotic division without the stress and horrible smell of Anatomy.

The AMA and the uninsured

After recently becoming an AMA (American Medical Assoc.) member, I began receiving their “morning rounds” e-mail updates.  Today’s asserted that a significant percentage of uninsured children have insured parents.  They then proceeded to make the claim that this was another reason why we should have programs such as S-CHIP or socialized medicine, and why we should elect a certain candidate.  Now, these are supposedly intelligent people who are only biased towards an individual’s health and not politics.  Really?  How is it that I look at that data, and see parents who are either too lazy, too cheap, or too ignorant to enroll their children in their insurance plan, and not some clarion call towards socialized health-care?  Simple, I’m a conservative and their liberal.  I don’t begrudge the difference in our political views, but I do find it dishonest and deceitful that they hide behind the bipartisan, relatively apolitical face of the AMA to make these claims.  It makes me almost want to cancel my membership, but my forgiveness is as deep as JAMA is thick.

Anatomy…The End is Near!

In less than 24 hours, I will have completed Human Anatomy, and I shall be free, no longer a slave to my cadaver.

I wonder what air that doesn’t contain Formalin smells like?  Tomorrow evening I shall know.

The Strange World of the Living Dead

In my Gross Anatomy class today, I had the pleasure of experiencing American obesity first-hand. It’s enough to make one run to the gym and begin training for that marathon.