Healthcare is only “safe” when physicians work for patients

This post is in rebuttal to the blog post by Dr. Monya De, "White men need to do their part and make healthcare safe again."

Dr. De begins by conjuring outdated, bygone spirits of racism and ends with liberal socialism. Her blog was divisive in many respects, and is potentially racist, especially because it singles out white men and anyone opposed to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Improvements to the healthcare system and its funding will not occur when you try to paint “the other side” with partisan rancor as evil and uncaring, with anecdotal and nonsensical vignettes.

People opposed to the ACA are not evil, nor do they want people to not have access to healthcare insurance or to go bankrupt. Mostly, they want a healthcare system that improves access for everyone, while at the same time reduces costs in a transparent fashion for all involved.

Many people hate ACA/Obamacare as it increased their premium costs and deductibles, got between them and their doctors and reduced their doctor’s ability to be an independent counsel for them. In other words, the ACA was divisive. The increased premiums took money out of household budgets that had been used for other necessities of life. For example, for a $20,000-per-year policy, you got a “free” $150 physical exam. After that, you had to reach a $5,000 deductible before any coverage kicked in. The increased deductibles were, in effect, a mechanism to ration care against those who could not afford the large deductibles and premium increases.

While the ACA was touted as expanding access to Medicaid, it hurt most everyone else. That's divisive. 

Whether healthcare is funded by the end-user on the one hand, or taxpayer-funded through government on the other, racist overtones are not necessarily inherent to either. In fact, when people pay for their own care by their own means, the potential for financial discrimination decreases, unlike when government decides which group "deserves" healthcare resources and forces someone else to pay for it. 

Next:  "There is no such thing as a free lunch or mammogram"

Furthermore, there is no such thing as a free lunch or mammogram. It's time to grow up. Someone always pays. Charity should be person-to-person, not coerced or extorted by government force. There is no virtue, or even moral high ground, in blackmail, or extortion by IRS penalties, which the supreme court illegally rewrote as “taxes.”

Blog: The largest cause of medical errors is Congress

As the Hoover Institution states:

"Many Americans believe socialism to be a form of social kindness by the government. But true socialism isn’t a social safety net. It is when the government controls most prices, businesses, property, and other aspects of economic life. The historical record of socialism has been wrecked or stagnating economies and flagrant human rights violations. The truth is that people do not prosper in socialist countries.”

Politics in general yearns to be pure, but in reality, it is a dirty and unseemly business at all levels. Many of the marches you refer to were funded by political activists for political motivations like power and money; few were true to issues or ideals.

Our constitutional republic, based on capitalism, has given us 240 years of peaceful transitions of power. 

So, Dr. De, please discard your divisive and unproductive moral indignation and come to the table to deal with medical care, policy and political reality. Please come to the table, with your differing philosophies, ideals and methods, but first, you must grasp the reality of healthcare and its funding. True honest healthcare can only exist when the patient chooses and pays directly for their care, and are therefore truly invested in the route to the best outcome.