The Real Health Care Crisis

No candidate has the answer.

After listening to various vague outlines for improving health care in America offered by the three Presidential hopefuls, it's clear that this problem will remain with us for a long, long time. All of the plans more or less accept the underlying system with its waste and redundancies and promise improvements which either won't work (McCain) or which expand coverage without addressing the increased expenses (Hillary and Barak).

In a way it's a clear victory for the health care and pharma lobbies. The tens of millions of dollars they have poured into electing obedient legislators and Presidents has been excellent value. Harvard Business School estimates that there are $200 Billion in redundant, unnecessary marketing and administrative expenses in our current system which could be eliminated by going to a single payer system. Barak seems to recognize that such a system would be better than what he is proposing, but he candidly admitted that it was simply not politically feasible. Hillary offers a warmed over version of Mitt's failed Massachusetts plan while McCain offers Bushian platitudes about competition.

Until we address the fundamental issues that our health care system faces, we will continue to pay too much of too little for too few.

When Will It Be Over?

With the North Carolina and Indiana primaries behind us and with the pundits calling it all over, I join those who hope that the pundits are correct. Mathematically Obama has won, and Hillary has lost.

Actually all the Clintons have lost. My sense is that since January overall regard for the Clintons within their own party has plummeted. I for one no longer find it reassuring that Bill would be in the White House as Hillary's secret adviser. His gaffs on the campaign trail have seriously eroded his reputation for sound judgment. I guess Chelsea's ok, but Hillary has morphed into someone who will say or do anything to win the Presidency. Her actions seem only slightly bounded by a sense of what she can get away with, not by some deeply held concept of integrity.

It's time for a change. It's time for Senator Obama to be our next President.