NEOAVATARA

c/o Michael Ramirez, IBD Editorials

When you try to reform one-sixth of the economy of the United States, you better make sure you limit the number of mistakes made.  And the Democrats…well, they are certainly not limiting their mistakes.

Reform is difficult, because changing long held entrenched belief systems are difficult to alter.  Health care is not an old boys network anymore, but there are things done in the health care system that no one would implement in a new system if starting from scratch.

For Washington to truly reform the health care system, they really need to understand somethings that have failed in the past, and not repeat those mistakes.

1.  Bipartisanship matters.

I know…the Republicans are in the wilderness.

But you are seeing the same mistakes made now as were made in 1993.  Democrats are refusing to give on any major issues.  They are making many decisions in closed session.  And whenever someone disagrees with them, that person clearly doesn’t care about the good of the American people.

That kind of politics, the old politics that Mr. Obama decried during the election, is certain to kill of any chance of reform.

Now, we are seeing moderate Democrats, the Blue Dogs, faced with this conundrum.  Moderates understand that passage of the current bill would go agaisnt the majority of the public.  And it will be even worse once the public knows what is in it.

Everyone needs political cover to get something as radical as health care done.  The Democrats are learning this the hard was.  A little compromise from the left could go a long way to passage of real reform.

2.  Separate employers, employees, and health insurance.

I know that Mr. Obama has said he wants to retain the employer-based system we have today.  That is ridiculous.  Someone needs to explain to him that without making health care an individual right, we will never get true reform.

Employers became inexorcibly linked to health insurance with the post-war labor movement.  Thus, portability with health insurance, either by switching jobs or leaving your job, became virtually impossible.

I believe that insurance should be tied to the individual, not any employer.  First of all, that would allow personal choices to matter more.  Second, it would allow people to have more freedom in job choices.

Now, we have to protect people who have insurance through their employer today.  That may seem contradictory, but not necessarily.  The government could force companies to pay the amount they currently spend on their employees into a personal health care account, from which people can choose their own care.

Whether today or in the future, employer paid care must change.  It will be unfortunate if we carry out health care reform without solving that problem today.  Politically, this would signal real reform, reform that is needed.

3.  Avoid overregulation.

This is going to be very difficult, becuase for every problem, Democrats have a regulation as a solution.  The medical industry is already the most regulated business in America, by far.  Federal, state, local regulations, on top of regulations placed by fiat by courts, has dramatically increased costs.  It is estimated that the average family physician spends 10-20% of their time on paperwork, and that they spend almost 1/3 of their overhead on paying people just handle said paperwork.

Now, one thing  that government is not good at is limiting paperwork (see:  IRS).  And with the House bill currently at 1,000 pages, I worry that this bill could actually make things worse.

One example of over regulation?  The House is currently placing numerous limitations on what insurers will and will not cover.  That is ludicrous.  There should be, at most, 10 or so things that insurers should be forced to cover, primarily focusing on catastrophic care and preventative care.  Outside of that, patients should be able to make clear choices.   I admit that Congress could do everyone a service by making insurers present documents that every layperson can understand…that would be helpful.  But imposing dictats will only  increase cost and overhead.

Politically, every additional regulation added to this bill will create more and more enemies, whether they be Republicans, Doctors, Hospitals, Nurses, Lobbyists, dogs, cats…you name it.  The less regulation, the better, both for the country and for the politicians.

4.  Quit Spinning

The biggest reason that the public is starting to move against the health care plan (53%/44% against)  is that they know falsehoods when they hear it.  Democrats have been spinning this for months.  And when asked a simple, direct question, they are unable to answer.  For example, have you heard one Congressperson give a good answer why they are exempt from their own health care plan?  Of course not.

Mr. Obama is the worst offender.  He states things without even reading the bill.  In his defense, maybe he believes he can fix everything when a bill comes to conference committee.  What the President fails to understand is that will be too late…the public support would have already dissappeared.  He claims huge savings…which are a drop in the bucket compared to the $1-2 trillion we are talking about over the course of 10 years.

For example, in his Saturday radio address, Mr. Obama stated that health care reform will be good for small business.  First, as a small businessman I can tell you that is totally false.  The costs of hiring additional people would go dramatically upwards.  And in this economic environment, I wouldn’t be surprised if such an additional cost (not excluding potential surtaxes) would actually make many small business owners let go of people.

Then, Obama started a war with the Office of Management and Budget (the political economic office of the President) and the Congressional Budget Office (the nonpartisan economic regulator of Congress).  The CBO last week dented the Obama armor by stating that the House Obamacare plan was much more expensive than previously stated.  After that, Obama called the head of the CBO, Doug Elmendorf (who was appointed by the Democrats in the House, mind you) for a ‘chat’.  In other words, this was arm twisting time.  Unfortunately, Mr. Elmendorf appears to be made of stronger stuff.  During Wednesday’s Press Conference, Mr. Obama repeatedly pointed to his proposed “Independent Medicare Advisory Council” (or IMAC), which would give a medical advisory council the power to help decide the scope of coverage that would be eligible for reimbursement under Medicare (please note:   this is a proposal I actually agree with…).  Well, then the CBO stuck a needle in that balloon as well, stating that IMAC would save around $2 billion over the next decade…the proverbial drop in the bucket.  The CBO’s review of the proposal found that “the probability is high that no savings would be realized … but there is also a chance that substantial savings might be realized,” Elmendorf wrote.  Again, Obama’s proposals sound great, but are not being confirmed by nonpartisan sources…and fighting with those sources just makes the White House look pathetic.

Also, this week Obama was asked what common sacrifice he would ask the people of America to get universal health care.  He couldn’t really answer the question.  Americans would rather hear specifics on what they need to give up to achieve the goal, than beyond told falsely that they can have their cake and eat it too.  Even people who are not paying close attention to the debate understand that is an impossiblity.

This week’s press conference was the prime example.  Mr. Obama did not give one clear answer.  Not one (well, except about the Gates/Crowley controversy, that is…).  How bad is it?  MSNBC, the Obama network, was not pleased.  MSNBC’s Howard Fineman said the following:

I’ve been covering Barack Obama for a few years, and it’s usually crystal clear what he is up to. Not last night. This is the first time I’ve asked myself: What was THAT all about?

His prime time press conference was worse than a waste of time. He spent an hour (with the aide of a soporific White House press corps) pouring sand (one grain at a time) into the already-slowing gears of the machinery of health-care reform.

He made no real news on health care, but DID make news on race relations with his discussion of the Skip Gates case — thereby obscuring the topic he supposedly wanted to feature.

MSNBC wasn’t the only one not pleased.  The public didn’t like this at all…Obama’s popularity numbers and poll numbers on health care dropped after the presser.   That is quite unusual in this day and age…usually a Presidential press conference, at the very least, would get a short term popularity bump.  But the public understand the reality:  Obama and the Democrats really have nothing more to add to sell health care reform to the American people, with the bill such as this.

So what now?  I will say this again:  They need to go back to the drawing board.  The bill, in its current form, is dead.  Well, not dead, but on life support.  The public has decided, and they are against it.  They are NOT against Health care reform however.  Obama could save the entire effort by telling the House to go back and start again.  But that is not Obama’s way.  He will not admit the mistake so easily.  And there in lies the heart of the matter, and why the current version of health care will go down in flames.