Thursday, June 9, 2011

Wolf: Why Obama Is Wrecking Medicare

Dr. Milton Wolf has a new OpEd in the 6/8/2011 Washington Times, "Obamacare wrecks Medicare by design, but why?"

He observes that (1) Medicare is increasingly unsustainable and that (2) current Obama administration policies seem designed to drive the American health care into a government-run single-payer system:
In the few remaining years Medicare has left, dispirited doctors are already fleeing the program in droves - and medicine altogether - leaving behind helpless patients. Democrats’ only plan is to maintain the crumbling status quo: Plunder Medicare, chase more doctors away with an additional 30 percent cut in reimbursement next year, and then watch from the bleachers as Americans are turned into medical refugees desperate for any salvation.

The president's intentions are chillingly clear: "I happen to be a proponent of a single payer universal health care program. ...That's what I'd like to see." Obamacare is a major step in that direction. "I don't think we're going to be able to eliminate employer coverage immediately," he says, but he can envision it "a decade out, or 15 years out, or 20 years out."
The current system of employment-based health insurance has many problems. But destroying the remnants of the semi-private insurance system and replacing it with a government monopoly insurer isn't going to make things better.

As one wag noted, "If you don't like health insurance companies now, think of how much better our customer service will be when you have to buy it from us."

(Read the full text of "Obamacare wrecks Medicare by design, but why?".)