ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper has written an article, "When Academic Words Become Political Ammunition," that gives an anonymous "White House official's" rebuttal to the many concerns expressed about President Obama's choices for advisers and "czars" who will affect the shape of health care policies. He attempts to debunk criticisms of the philosophies of Ezekial Emanuel, MD (a bioethicist who is heading the push for control of health care finance and delivery in order to provide universal insurance) and John Holdren, director of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy.
The problem is that with Medicare and Medicaid, about half of medical care in this country is already paid for using tax dollars, and we are currently considering expanding tax dollar payment for nearly all health care in the Nation. I disagree with Ezekial Emanuel's position, referenced in the Hastings journal article, "Where Civic Republicanism and Deliberative Democracy Meet," which is linked (in pdf) at Tapper's essay:
Americans fear that if society guarantees certain services as "basic," the range of services guaranteed will expand to include all - or almost all - available services (except for cosmetic surgery and therapies not yet proven effective or proven ineffective). So rather than risk the bankruptcy of having nearly every medical service socially guaranteed to all citizens, Americans have been willing to tolerate a system in which the well insured receive a wide range of medical services with some apparently basic services un- covered; Medicare beneficiaries receive fewer services with some discretionary services covered and some services that intuitively seem basic uncovered; Medicaid beneficiaries and uninsured persons receive far fewer services.
In fact, while we are concerned about the amount of taxes that will be imposed, the Tapper essay points out that we are very much afraid that government interference in health care will result in more limitations, so that none of us will be allowed, much less "guaranteed," to seek medical care that will prolong our lives and make us feel better, unless we are seen as members of a group that is more valuable than others. The examples that Dr. Emanuel gives and our observation of the government pre-paid medical care schemes around the world lead us to believe that, the more health care is financed by tax dollars, the more expensive and rationed it becomes.
Academic mind experiments that do not draw a line between what is acceptable and what is condemned by the authors understandably will be interpreted by others as at best, neutral, at worst, in support of condemnable acts.
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