Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 6, 1993 TAG: 9304060389
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
GOVERNMENT CONTROLS WON'T IMPROVE HEALTH
HILLARY Rodham Clinton, our co-president, with no noticeable expertise whatsoever in medical care, is in charge of our $840 billion health-care industry. Her sensibilities were shaped by the cultural left in the '60s. Ms. Clinton's health plan will affect every American by raising taxes - in addition to the new ones contained in Clinton's economic-recovery plan. A Value Added Tax has been floated. It is a national sales tax, up to 20 percent in Europe, which helps pay for social programs.Her medical plan will probably contain such words as "a national basic health-care package," "standardized benefits and fees," "managed care," "federally mandated universal insurance" and "managed competition." The goal is to transfer control of health care from patients and their private doctors to government and insurance "managers."
Managed care, such as Health Maintenance Organizations, is far different from traditional health insurance. In an effort to control costs and please employers who pay most of their employees' medical bills, insurance companies have established networks of administrators and bureaucrats whose job is to limit utilization of health care by employees. That is what managed care means.
These companies have invested heavily in managed care because they stand to benefit financially under that system. Employees will be channeled to doctors under contract to insurance companies. Doctors will take orders from managers regarding how long patients may stay in the hospital, which tests or drugs may be given, and which operations may be performed. Managed care reduces costs by restricting access to care, i.e., by rationing care.
Health-care rationing takes place in all socialist nations. They endure lower standards of care, inequity and powerful bureaucracy. British hospitals hold down spending by making people wait for care. Patients over 55 are denied dialysis, which ends the lives of 1,500 patients per year. Swedish doctors withhold treatment for impaired newborns and the elderly. Entire wings of Canadian hospitals are shut down for weeks or months to save funds.
The Clintons are creating many unrealistic expectations. Good intentions of politicians rarely lead to good results. It's naive to believe that everything that should be done, can be done by well-meaning social experimenters.
Americans have enjoyed the finest medical care in the world and we are the envy of the world. We shouldn't strive, in any way, to emulate mediocre socialist nations. JACK O. MARTIN ROANOKE