The Health Care Diversion: It's the Economy, Stupid

One has to wonder: Is the Democrat's emphasis on health care a diversionary tactic? Sure, there is room for improvement in the U.S. health care system. Is a whole-sale make-over of the U.S. health care system needed? I don't read the tea leaves that way.

The momentum for whole-sale reform of the U.S.'s health care system is premised on a sour U.S. and world economy. The logic may go thus: The more people there are out of work, the more people there are that may be interested in government health care. Hence, the Obama administration has incentive to delay the recovery of the U.S. economy to increase the likelihood of passing government-run health care. My intent here is not to be conspiratorial. However, Rahm Emmanual's infamous, "Don't waste a 'serious crisis" comment, affords a basis for skepticism. The depressed U.S. economy affords just such a 'crisis' that can be 'leveraged.'

Issues with the U.S. health care system are meaningfully a function of the state of the U.S. economy. The healthier the U.S. economy, the more wealth there is available in the private sector. Wealth in the private sector reflects job creation, salary and benefits expansion, increased charitable giving to non-profit hospitals and other community support organizations, and greater freedom of individual choice. These, collectively, reduce the need for government involvement in health care.

The current government efforts to reconfigure the U.S. health care system reflect an attempt to address perceived systemic symptoms without an initial diagnosis. Proposed measures are akin to treating a fever generated by a bacterial infection with an ice-pack. The ice-pack is noticeable, and appears to offer relief, yet has no therapeutic impact on the underlying infection.

The considerable effort pouring into health sector reconfiguration focuses on a symptom that diverts energy and attention away from the underlying weakness of the U.S. economy. The focus on health sector reform is a diversion that pulls energy and focus away from engaging discussion on what is needed to ensure the long-term health of the U.S. economy; to engage entrepreneurial efforts that create jobs; to divert attention away from the fact that the U.S. economy continues to shed jobs.

To reprise a phrase popular with the last Democrat to occupy the White House: It's the economy, stupid. Getting the U.S. economy back on solid footing would seem to go a long way to improving the health care experience of every U.S. citizen and do so in a way that generates, rather than consumes, wealth and health for all.