Let's pretend that we don't already know that our government is not capable of efficiently managing and improving a system as complex as American healthcare. Let's just look at recent history. As far as government handouts go, "Cash For Clunkers" is about as simple as a program can be, right? And yet the government has proven unable to implement even this! And after failing to run the program in an acceptable manner, they decided to expand it!
Seriously? We want to hand over the healthcare system to them? They can't handle a few hundred thousand transactions that essentially contain three or four inputs and one output, but we think they can manage an industry with millions of participants and millions of variables? A business that literally deals in life and death?
Some car dealers have stopped participating in the program because they are out of cash and they don't know when or if they'll be repaid by the government. No big deal -- nobody is dying over it -- but people who might like to participate in the program are being denied the opportunity because the government cannot manage it properly. Now imagine we're talking about hospitals instead of car dealerships.
When Obama is off-teleprompter, he has shown that he doesn't understand the principles or the details of this plan he is trying to sell us. Why would we listen to these people and just hope they might get it right this time, especially when so much is on the line?
My question is this: why is most of Washington hell-bent on reforming and destroying a system that essentially works, instead of taking some simple common-sense measures to address problems that do exist with the current system? For example, why can't we start with John Mackey's ideas and go from there?
John Mackey: The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare - WSJ.com
** Yes, I know the evil Journal edited his piece (as they do with every op-ed). I didn't see any big differences, but his original piece is on his blog if you care:
The CEO’s Blog