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Smith
Faculty Opinion Article
The 30
Seconds Outlook
August 1, 2009
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“I do not charge those who cannot pay, and I accept
insurance as payment from those with limited ability to pay.”
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— John R. Haslem, MD, FACS |
As the only non-MD in an
inter-generational family of
surgeons, family doctors, and
decorated WWII veterans, it is not
difficult for me to see what is
wrong with Obama health care
legislation and its Congressional
proponents who would keep their
special health care insurance.
Others see the problems as well.
To start, Tom Daschle says we
should “accept hopeless diagnoses”
[bureaucratic death warrants] and
“forgo experimental treatments” [no
Johns Hopkins and Mayo Clinics for
research and humane and superior
care]. I would be dead for 13 years
without two Johns Hopkins
neurosurgeons.
“I [Myra Ulfrik] didn’t run to
Canada for [cancer] treatment.
Medicare took care of me right here
in New York City. To endure, I just
need the freedom to choose my own
doctors, and get the diagnostic
scans and care I need. I need hope
that a treatment will be developed .
. . .
I am still here because my care
was managed by doctors—not a
government agency. My doctors do
what the bureaucracy can’t: They see
me as a person.” (Myra Ulfrik, WSJ,
7/31/09)
“I [Peggy Noonan] suspect voters
. . . have been giving themselves an
internal Q-and A that goes something
like this:
Will whatever health care plan is
produced by Congress increase the
deficit? ‘Of course.’
Will it mean tax increases? ‘Of
course.’
Will it mean new fees or fines?
‘Probably.’
Can I afford it right now? ‘No,
I’m already getting clobbered.’
Will it make the marketplace
freer and better? ‘Probably not.’
Is our health-care system in
crisis? ‘Yeah, it has been for
years.’
Is it the most pressing crisis
right now? ‘No, the economy is.’
Will a health-care bill improve
the economy? ‘I doubt it.’
Americans don’t fear the devil’s
in the details, they fear hell is.
Do they want the same people running
health care who gave us the
Department of Motor Vehicles, the
post office and the invasion of Irag?
So this might be an unarticulated
public fear: When everyone pays for
the same health-care system, the
overseers will feel more and more a
right to tell you how to live, which
simple joys are allowed and which
are not.
Americans in the most personal,
daily ways feel they are less free
than they used to be. And, they are
right, they are less free.” (Peggy
Noonan, WSJ, 7/25/09)
The missing link in government
run health care: humanity and its
care.
John A. Haslem
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