
 |
The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon With its colorful cache of purples and oranges and reds, COLLARD GREEN SLAW is a marvelous mood booster --- not to mention just downright delish
April 18, 2014
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Clarifying one of the greatest philosophical conundrums in theology
John Ericson: Trying hard to be 'positive' but never succeeding? Blame Your Brain
The Kosher Gourmet by Julie Rothman Almondy, flourless torta del re (Italian king's cake), has royal roots, is simple to make, . . . but devour it because it's simply delicious
April 14, 2014
Rabbi Dr Naftali Brawer: Passover frees us from the tyranny of time
Eric Schulzke: First degree: How America really recovered from a murder epidemic
Georgia Lee: When love is not enough: Teaching your kids about the realities of adult relationships
Gordon Pape: How you can tell if your financial adviser is setting you up for potential ruin
Dana Dovey: Up to 500,000 people die each year from hepatitis C-related liver disease. New Treatment Has Over 90% Success Rate
Justin Caba: Eating Watermelon Can Help Control High Blood Pressure
April 11, 2014
Rabbi Hillel Goldberg: Silence is much more than golden
Susan Swann: How to value a child for who he is, not just what he does
Susan Scutti: A Simple Blood Test Might Soon Diagnose Cancer
Chris Weller: Have A Slow Metabolism? Let Science Speed It Up For You
April 9, 2014
Jonathan Tobin: Why Did Kerry Lie About Israeli Blame?
Samuel G. Freedman: A resolution 70 years later for a father's unsettling legacy of ashes from Dachau
Jessica Ivins: A resolution 70 years later for a father's unsettling legacy of ashes from Dachau
Matthew Mientka: How Beans, Peas, And Chickpeas Cleanse Bad Cholesterol and Lowers Risk of Heart Disease
April 8, 2014
Dana Dovey: Coffee Drinkers Rejoice! Your Cup Of Joe Can Prevent Death From Liver Disease
Chris Weller: Electric 'Thinking Cap' Puts Your Brain Power Into High Gear
April 4, 2014
Amy Peterson: A life of love: How to build lasting relationships with your children
John Ericson: Older Women: Save Your Heart, Prevent Stroke Don't Drink Diet
John Ericson: Why 50 million Americans will still have spring allergies after taking meds
Sarah Boesveld: Teacher keeps promise to mail thousands of former students letters written by their past selves
April 2, 2014
Dan Barry: Should South Carolina Jews be forced to maintain this chimney built by Germans serving the Nazis?
Frank Clayton: Get happy: 20 scientifically proven happiness activities
Susan Scutti: It's Genetic! Obesity and the 'Carb Breakdown' Gene
|
| |
Jewish World Review
April 6, 2010
/ 22 Nissan 5770
Republicans Need a Plan B
By
Cal Thomas
| 
|
|
|
| |
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Should Republicans succeed in their attempt to get the new health care legislation overturned on constitutional grounds, what then? No one wants to see the current chaos of selective health insurance and rising treatment costs continue.
The best course for opponents of the law is not only to fight for its repeal, but also have a plan ready to take its place.
Few in the medical profession thought more about this subject, or brought more experience and passion to it than Dr. Michael DeBakey the late cardiovascular surgeon.
In a speech delivered at Rice University in Houston on April 15, 2005, DeBakey laid the moral, medical and political groundwork necessary to transform American health care. He called for a roadmap toward achieving a universal health care system that is "culturally acceptable, affordable, and of optimal quality, while avoiding its administration and total control by an ultimately rigid and unwieldy governmental or insurance-industry bureaucracy."
In each of these categories, Obamacare falls short.
In his speech, DeBakey remembers some history, much of which he lived (he died in 2008 at age 99). He recalled that national health insurance in the United States was first proposed in 1915 by the American Association of Labor Legislation, a small organization of fewer than 3,500 members. Interestingly, Samuel Gompers, one of the most influential labor leaders of his day, vigorously opposed universal health care. Gompers argued, "The solution to illness was not compulsory insurance, but higher wages."
In 1920, The American Medical Association (AMA) opposed compulsory insurance "which provides for medical service to be rendered contributors or their dependents, provided, controlled, or regulated by any state or federal government." As recently as 1990, the AMA continued to resist compulsory insurance and health care run by the federal government. Apparently seeing the political writing on the wall, the AMA reversed itself and signed on to Obamacare.
| FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO INFLUENTIAL NEWSLETTER |
| Every weekday NewsAndOpinion.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". HUNDREDS of columnists and cartoonists regularly appear. Sign up for the daily update. It's free. Just click here. |
|
DeBakey saw the dangers of too much government meddling in health care, but he also realized something had to be done to cure its ills and that the federal government, which is very much involved in research grants to medical institutions, has a role to play. In his Rice speech, he said, "Blind opposition, indignant repudiation, bitter denunciation of these laws is worse than useless; it leads nowhere and it leaves the profession in a position of helplessness if the rising tide of social development seeps over them."
Which is what has happened with Obamacare.
DeBakey quotes Robert M. Ball, President Kennedy's commissioner of Social Security, who said that the architects of Medicare saw it and subsequent insurance for children as incremental steps toward national health care. He said he was "astonished" to learn this. He shouldn't have been because "progressives" always think government and academia are smarter and more capable than any individual or profession.
Seeing clearly the arguments that would be made in favor of Obamacare, DeBakey said, "I have traveled the globe to developed and undeveloped countries with both democratic and communistic governments ... and I can state unequivocally that I have not observed any 'universal health system' or other state-operated medical system that functions in a highly satisfactory manner or provides high-quality care to all the people all the time. In all such countries, there are long delays for any form of high-technology care sometimes with fatal consequences. In fact, rationing of care is a prominent feature of all these systems."
DeBakey was a humanitarian who believed "health care is too critical for the welfare of the people to be held hostage by the politically motivated or the profit minded. Herein lies the societal challenge: the need for accepting the desirability of some form of national health care, along with the willingness to pay for it, but avoiding its administration and total control by an ultimately rigid and unwieldy governmental or insurance industry bureaucracy."
This is the Republican challenge. If Obamacare is struck down, Republicans should have a substitute proposal ready that embodies their principles, gets passed by a Republican Congress and signed by a Republican president in 2013.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
| BUY THE BOOK |
| Click HERE to purchase it at a discount. (Sales help fund JWR.). |
|
Cal Thomas Archives JWR contributor Cal Thomas is co-author with Bob Beckel, a liberal Democratic Party strategist, of "Common Ground: How to Stop the Partisan War That is Destroying America". Comment by clicking here.
© 2006, Tribune Media Services, Inc.
|
|
Columnists
Toons
Lifestyles
|