Three conservative reviews of Obama's healthcare reforms
| Washington
Even before President Obama had taken the podium Monday at the annual meeting of the American Medical Association in Chicago, conservatives were prepared to counter his arguments.
Tom Price, a Republican member of Congress from Georgia and a physician, outlined his major concerns about Mr. Obama鈥檚 healthcare reform in a conference call with reporters while he waited for the president to begin.
Two biggest show-stoppers
Concern No. 1: Where will medical decisions be made? Dr. Price asked.
Decisionmaking will move from patients and physicians to 鈥渁 government takeover of those medical decisions or a government-run plan,鈥� Price said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 unacceptable to the physicians of America. I think it鈥檚 unacceptable to the patients of America.鈥�
Concern No. 2: There are no actively practicing physicians on the new 15-member Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research.
This council, funded by economic stimulus money and aimed at providing information on the strengths and weaknesses of different medical interventions, will define what is 鈥渁ppropriate quality care,鈥� Price said. The lack of practicing physicians on the board 鈥渙ught to give Americans great pause,鈥� he added.
Price, in his 鈥減re-buttal,鈥� anticipated that Obama would talk about the 鈥減ublic insurance option鈥� that is being floated in Congress 鈥� a government-run health insurance system that consumers could use instead of private insurance. Though Obama insists that the public and private insurance systems would complement one another, Price sees a different outcome.
鈥淎ny plan that results in a government takeover of any portion of it will push, will crowd out those individuals all across this land who have personal private health insurance into that government-run program,鈥� he said.
Surely not another wasteful Medicare program?
The CATO Institute, a libertarian-leaning think tank, also put out some pre-buttals before the Obama speech.
鈥淭he problems with Obamacare go well beyond the public option鈥�.,鈥� said senior fellow Michael Tanner. 鈥淭he mandates on businesses and individuals, taxpayer subsidies, insurance regulation, and government interference in private medical decisions pose serious threats to American businesses, taxpayers, and most importantly patients.鈥�
Michael Cannon, CATO鈥檚 director of health policy studies, noted: 鈥淧resident Obama says he can find and eliminate $600 billion of waste in Medicare and Medicaid. If government health programs are so wasteful, why would he want to create another?鈥�
A request for details
After the speech, health-policy expert Dennis Smith of the Heritage Foundation said in an interview that the challenge is the bare-bones natures of the Obama plan so far.
鈥淚 still find it absolutely fascinating that the White House and different groups are ginning up this huge public relations campaign to support his plan, and nobody knows what his plan is,鈥� Mr. Smith said. 鈥淭he important details are still missing. There are still a lot of pep talks and generalities, but we don鈥檛 know what the president is really proposing on some very important and fundamental parts of reform.鈥�
鈥淓xpanding Medicaid is not reform,鈥� he added. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 easy to do.鈥�
Obama鈥檚 campaign promise that the average American family would save $2,500 a year after healthcare reform? That鈥檚 missing, says Smith.
鈥淚t鈥檚 an admission that they don鈥檛 really know how all these different pieces are going to work,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hey simply are promoting a big public relations campaign without the details.鈥�
If there鈥檚 one concession to the president that these conservatives all agree on, it鈥檚 this: There may be no better salesman on healthcare than Obama.
