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Healthcare Journal of baton rouge
MAY / JUN 2012
ED I TOR ’ S DE SK
The fate of President Obama’s
healthcare reform plan
is now in the
hands of a seemingly split Supreme
Court. Of all the hundreds of provisions,
make no mistake; the significance of
this reform comes from the mandate.
The mandate to purchase health insur-
ance, or pay a penalty, will compel people to enter into
a contract that’s essentially against their self-interest
with an insurance company in order to subsidize other
people who are going to benefit. This is a huge leap
towards centralization and highly significant as to the
role of government.
The irony is the politics of this matter. The idea of
the mandate was introduced in 1989 by the conser-
vative Heritage Foundation and was highly support-
ed in 1993 by the likes of Bob Dole, Newt Gingrich,
and Mitt Romney. So, now we have a Supreme Court
whose liberal judges support the mandate and whose
conservative judges are against it. But, if George W.
Bush passed the same legislation, the Supreme Court
judges would likely be reversed in their opinion. I just
find this quite interesting. The mandate only becomes
“liberal” or “conservative” as a result of which party
presents the idea.
Regardless of the politics, most polls suggest that
Smith W. Hartley
Chief Editor
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editor@ushealthcarejournals.com
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www.HealthcareJournalBR.com
Politics is
the art of looking for
trouble
, finding it whether it exists
or not, diagnosing it incorrectly,
and applying the wrong remedy.
–
ernest benn
about 60% of Americans are not in favor of this health-
care reform. This is a problem for the President. Many
of the President’s supporters say that most people will
learn to like it over time. That’s a tough sell.
What makes the concept of healthcare reform partic-
ularly interesting is almost everyone thinks there should
be healthcare reform. But, few people agree on what
that would actually look like. As long as a multitude of
interests are at stake, consensus will always be difficult
to achieve. It kind of makes you wonder why we’re de-
termined to have a one size fits all system.
So here we are. We have a reform plan that is probably
one or two judges away from being fully implemented.
It’s a plan that is actually more insurance reform than
healthcare reform. So, unless the federal government
wants to allow hospitals to turn down patients at the
emergency room due to inability to pay, the mandate is
the key. As the mandate goes, insurance reform goes.
Otherwise, we are just left with a few modest tweaks.
The healthcare system in our country will continue
to evolve. Ideally we would all become as passionate
about our health as we are about an insurance man-
date. I’m optimistic that in this political journey we will
one day be as interested in better health when we apply
more focus on our personal health and less on which
political jersey we are wearing.
‘‘