Obama Would Centralize All Aspects of Health Care

(By Robert E. Moffit, Human Events) - Health care spending is $2.4 trillion and today accounts for one out of six dollars in the American economy. What separates health care from every other sector of the American economy is that there is little or no consumer control over the flow of health care dollars. In fact, consumers control only about 16 cents out of every dollar that is spent on health care. Employers, managed-care executives and government officials control the vast bulk of health care spending. So when you hear that health care is different from other goods and services in the economy, that’s an unpleasant fact, rooted in stupid and outdated government policies.

Government spending accounts for half of all health care spending, and the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress aim to make that large government share much bigger. This would be done through the expansion of government health programs, Medicaid and SCHIP, already underway through the stimulus and other legislation, as well as the health care reform program that Obama and congressional Democrats will unveil on Capitol Hill later this month. That will be the first time that Americans will get a chance to see the crucial details of health reform, and be able to get an understanding of how the various financing and delivery reforms will affect them.

Meanwhile, the giants of the health care industry -- the trade associations representing doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical and medical technology companies, as well as organized labor -- are jockeying for position in the coming national health care debate. Joining with President Obama, the chiefs of the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association, the Advanced Medical Technology Association, America’s Health Insurance Plans, as well as the Service Employees International Union, say that they will cooperate with the President in reducing health care spending by 1.5% annually, amounting to a $2 trillion reduction in health care spending over ten years. Sounds impressive.