Nat Henthoff: I am finally scared of a White House administration

[lblanchard]

All the old heads of LJ will recall Nat Henthoff as a fearless voice speaking truth to power for more than five decades -- notably at the Village Voice. Henthoff has been around the barn a few times and knows that the evil in a bill is rarely in the text but in the latitude it gives the bureaucrats. And Henthoff -- who stood up to the likes of J. Edgar Hoover -- is now afraid of the Obamacare bill. Skip it if you like, but I think all the Old Lefties on my f-list ought to read it:

http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/hentoff081909.php3

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Under the British model, which Hentoff seems to find scary, the authorities have- in a few cases- refused to pay for very expensive drugs that might prolong (but not save) the lives of terminally ill patients. These decisions are always controversial- and in some cases (I can't cite examples) I believe the subsequent debate has caused the decision to be reversed. No-one has been pushing for euthanasia.

And, of course, the British system doesn't preclude people buying private health insurance, or paying for very expensive treatments out of their own pockets.

I've lived under the NHS all my life- and found it largely benign.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

I understand that our five-year survival rates for such common cancers as breast and colon cancer are roughly twice yours. Perhaps your folks are more reluctant to get early screening than ours for cultural reasons? Or perhaps they aren't encouraged to do so? Or perhaps our treatments are both more expensive and more effective? Perhaps we're just a nation of tougher old buzzards? I don't know, but I'm glad my sister has colon cancer on this side of the pond, not yours.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's interesting. I wasn't aware of that discrepancy. Apparently we're behind most of Europe too. I don't know what the reasons are, but I suspect health education has a lot to do with it.

Food for thought.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

I think Hentoff needs to understand better how insurance companies work. See http://blog.cagle.com/2009/08/18/free-market-death-panels/ for an example of a real-life death panel.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

I don't think he's suggesting that all insurance companies are all sweetness-and-light all the time. Speaking for myself, I'm convinced that, bad as they are, the government option will be infinitely worse.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

So, I'm just trying to figure out--do you think it's the US government that is particularly incompetent and corrupt, or do you feel that, say, Norway, has it worse than we do?

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

I have no opinion about Norway. I have a distates for U.S. government bureaucracy based on having worked for the Post Office and given birth in a naval hospital.

EDIT: "a distates" is somewhat worse than "a distaste".

[spartan1986.livejournal.com]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2009/08/britains_health_service_defend.html

At this point I wish they would just abolish ALL federal health care and I mean Medicare and Medicaid. It isn't that I "fear" them. They both already have in them ALL the provisions that some American's find so worrisome. I mean look at how many death panels have already been convened! No, I want them abolished because I will never benefit from them. They will go bankrupt long before I get old enough to use them. I am tired of throwing my tax dollars away to ensure a bunch of spoiled baby boomers get what they think they deserve. I think they deserve a quick kick in the pants but then again, I'm just a cynical Gen-X working my ass off every day to pay for their already enacted socialized medicine. They already got theirs so who cares about everyone else. See, Gen-X gets screwed again. Thanks a lot boomers!

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Me too. Only I'd like my money back, that is to say the 15% of my salary that's been taken from me for Social Security and Medicare all of my working life of 40-plus years, plus interest. Of course, I can't have that because the kleptocracy raided the trust fund a long time ago.

EDIT: Thank you for not suggesting, as a Facebook contact did, that Nat Henthoff (who is of course pre-boomer in case you're not familiar with him) should don a tin-foil helmet for disagreeing with the Obama health care plan. He's been speaking truth to power since 1958 and doesn't deserve that kind of derision.

We can also thank our friends in power any time from, say, 1980 to now for kicking this particular can down the road for so long. Anyone with half a brain could see that the system would not support a huge age cohort through two decades of life and would have adjusted the retirement ages accordingly. It makes no sense for me to retire at 65 when my family history suggests I'll be able to work till 70 or 75 with no loss of faculties.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

And another thing: Let me remind Gen-X that Medicare was passed in 1965. The oldest boomers were 19. We didn't pass this turkey so spare me your righteous indignation.

EDIT: That last line was a little harsh, so allow me to expand. This law was passed when I was 17. I've been in the workforce since I was 19, contributing my pittance to Medicare for (stops to count) 42 years. I will be eligible for Medicare in 2013. It is due to go pffft in 2017. How do you think I feel? And getting excoriated for being some kind of parasitic boomer on top of it all is just rubbing salt in the wound. Medicare (and Social Security too) would not have worked for The Greatest Generation and those in between if there hadn't been the enormous Boomer cohort propping it up.

[spartan1986.livejournal.com]

Then join us to either fix it or repeal it. Anything else is wasted electrons. What are you afraid of? A bunch of know nothing bumber sticker using youngsters might actually be old enough to know the political score?

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

There are better ways to fix it than H.R. 3200. Which, by the way, I've read.

[spartan1986.livejournal.com]

I am sure there are. But at least it is something more than anyone has been resolute enough to try in 15 years. The only unacceptable course of action is fear inspired inaction. I hear a lot of "no we can't" and that will not fix a damn thing. It is true that the baby boomers did not create our current health care system. Can you say they have done anything to fix it? A system we have known was broken for decades? Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid WILL go bankrupt. Still all we hear is "we can't!" When do we, as a people, start standing up and doing the right thing instead of sticking our heads in the proverbial sand? Yes, it will be hard. Yes it will be scary. So what, we all grew up a long time ago. Bogey Men don't scare me. So it isn't "righteous indignation" as you label it. I'm not that religious. It is pure incredulity that people still sit around and say "we can't." However, this time it will get done with or without the nay sayers. And if for whatever reason it doesn't get done this time it certainly won't be the last attempt to fix it we try. This isn't going away, it is too important and the consequences are too grave. Failure is not an option.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

George Bush tried to tackle Social Security, but got nowhere. In fact, he got his hands badly slapped for it.

I do agree with you,though: I think there are many things that could have been done but weren't. The steps to raise the eligibility age for Social Security and Medicare are good, and I have argued for those and written my Congresspersons about them for years, but I think they were implemented too late and too timidly, although I do understand that folks who are close to retirement age no longer have the flexibility to change their plans as much as those who have ten or fifteen years to plan. Nevertheless, at 61 I could cheerfully contemplate deferring the collection of my Social Security for a year, two years, even three years if necessary.

Because I buy my insurance in the private marketplace as an individual, I probably pay a lot more than the average person -- my monthly premiums are in the range of $750, with my MSA contribution on top of that. I'd like to enjoy the same tax advantages, as my own employer, as other employers, and I'd like to benefit from the additional bargaining power of group insurance. My insurance company does negotiate with providers on my behalf, though, so that alone reduces my out-of-pocket costs for routine health care. I'd like to see more portability in health care and I'd like to see a level playing field between employer-provided and individually-purchased health care. These things can probably be accomplished more effectively by lifting some regulations than by imposing new ones.

On the Medicare front and on the health care front in general, I know there's a lot of waste in the system. Part of it is a mindset brought about by lack of accountability/responsibility. I think the six words most damaging to the system are: "Your insurance will pay for it." Until I trained my current primary care guy, which took some time, that would be the first thing I'd hear if I asked how much something cost. I always ask whether this drug, this procedure, this test are actually necessary, whether there is a less expensive but possibly effective alternative, and what is the downside of a course of a plan of action that involves watchful waiting. Part of this is sheer cussedness. The other part is that I have a medical savings account with a high deductible. Between my deductible and my 20% copay for the first $15,000 of care, I could be on the hook for $6,000 in medical expenses in any given year (oh, I don't get drugs, eyes, or teeth, so there are those as well). I'm saving in my MSA for my next colonoscopy and don't want to pay for defensive medicine or other "do it by the book rather than the patient" procedures.

But these are decisions made by me with the expert assistance of my physician. I don't want them mandated for me by the government. And make no mistake, this bill is intended as the first step on the path to single-payer. I don't want to go there.

Finally, there's the whole issue of defensive medicine and fraud. If both of those could be tackled through tort reform and better controls, the cost of Medicare would decrease substantially.

When I am approaching my own health care, I do it in incremental steps -- let's try these exercises first, and if that doesn't work let's try something else. I'd like to see us approach health care reform in the same spirit. And for starters, I'd like to see the majority party at least listen to some of the ideas put out as alternatives. But you'll recall that Mr. Obama's response to them is very simple: "I won."

(I have determined my own health care strategy, by the way: I am eating carefully and exercising to keep myself as healthy as possible for as long as possible. If/when I develop a nasty expensive condition I will shift gears and drink myself to death.)

[spartan1986.livejournal.com]

We are not really that far apart on the issues. I do not want single payer. I do not want the Government setting conditions on the care I get (as in do this or we won't cover you.) I also see tort reform as the biggest single cost reducer available. Stop making the health care institution as a whole pay and pay when things go wrong because they will, that's life. This particularly I agree with though,

"I have determined my own health care strategy, by the way: I am eating carefully and exercising to keep myself as healthy as possible for as long as possible."

This is the best approach possible IMO. I met an 83 year old Camp Hostess this weekend while camping. Out here they have people who live in campsites and take care of them as well as help campers. She was not in a big RV. She was in tents living "the old fashioned" way. Frankly, she put me and most people to shame. She cooked in a dutch oven, drew her water from the campground well, and scrubbed the "methane pits" daily (her description of course.) She had no use for doctors. None at all. She said she simply had to live to be 110 because her Chevy LUV pickup was guaranteed to get 500,000 miles on a single engine and by God she was determined it would live up to that promise though it was only half way there. I only hope I will be that spry and feisty when I am 83.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Heh. You skipped over my end-of-life plan (heavy drinking). Of course, I plan to go first class with some really good hooch.

Chances are, I *will* be that spry and feisty, assuming I do the right exercises to strengthen my knees. My maternal grandmother didn't stop gardening until a few months before her death (on her 91st birthday). She was still cooking for the whole extended family on Sunday afternoons well into her eighties. And by "cooking" I mean big farmhouse meals with many many pies.