FIRMLY REFORMING THE INFIRMARY

The silver-tongued oratory of Barack Obama plays a dominant role in maintaining his popularity. His rousing words speak to the depths of the American citizen’s heart. Obama comes off as a refreshingly sensible leader compared to his immediate predecessor, George Bush. Yet, his Bill on US Healthcare Reforms has met with not a little discord and debate. His reform policy is based on universal health care for US citizens. In contrast with the Republican McCain’s capitalistic health care ideology, Democrat Obama vouches for a publicly funded medical insurance coverage paradigm wherein medical insurance would be rationed without discrimination to all sections of society.



In addition to the non-discriminatory administration of health insurance, it would be made compulsory for everyone to buy medical insurance, as Obama proposes to penalize all those financially able persons who refuse to buy it despite being able to afford it.

The proposal for the creation of a National Health Insurance Exchange seemed like a fool-proof way of pleasing all, given its complete lack of prejudice based either on pre-existing medical condition, economic or social status. Yet the debate over US healthcare policy seems destined to continue. It has resulted in incensed fathers disrupting Town Hall meetings in Michigan, demanding to know whether their cerebral palsy-afflicted son would be covered under Obama’s new plan.



The proposal has been a victim of adverse propaganda, to which Sarah Palin has contributed in no small measure, that indicates that the US healthcare system would recede into Nazism – with the terminally ill having to knock on Obama’s “death panel” to await judgment on whether they are deserving of healthcare. That the Bill has successfully obtained approval from the Congress despite such detractions speaks well of Obama’s rescue operations. Indeed it speaks quite badly of Obama’s enemies that they would resort to kindling the basest paranoia of Americans in an attempt to discredit him.

There is widespread disbelief that the Obama reforms will retain their promise of equality. Such outbursts as that of the father from Michigan seem the product of paranoid citizens with a penchant for a “secret truth” that is being withheld from the public and a staunch defiance of bureaucratic doublespeak, which Obama’s reform bill is said to be brimming with.

Ironically, it is the bureaucracy of insurance companies that the Bill seeks to obviate. The competition they will face from the public funding of medical insurance is supposed to keep them honest. With there being no scope for a judicial review against government monopoly of price fixing, private insurance companies would be severely set back if not crushed.

The plan is supposed to reduce the costs of healthcare and increase coverage for seniors. It is also a way to mitigate the skyrocketing wastage in the US healthcare budget. Insurance companies are said to spend unnecessary amounts of the budget as “loading fees” – which comprise non-medical expenses of paperwork and other marketing overheads.

It is also ironic that Democrat Obama would seek to employ capitalistic measures of competition to keep insurance companies in their place. Sometimes, one must eat one’s own ideologies to meet the demands of reality.