President Obama has a health care plan that he wants us to accept. It’s called single-payer. Single payer as in the government does all the paying, to doctors, hospitals, clinics, etc.

If the government controls the money, they control the health care industry. If they control the health care industry, they control you.

But try to find out what his plan for your health care is and you will hit a dead end. No pun intended. Apparently, it isn’t written. President Obama was interviewed on national TV last month and questions of cost came up.

MORAN: One of the concerns is cost. People are looking at the cost of this plan, the Congressional Budget Office. By the way, you invited the director of the Congressional Budget Office to the White House.

OBAMA: Right.

MORAN: He had given this report, which was very damaging to your plan. A lot of people thought that was improper, that you were trying to muscle an independent arbiter of this debate
OBAMA: Terry, first of all, he was remarking on the House bill, not my plan, right? So, I think it’s important to get that clear. Number two, I invited him to come alongside a whole range of other health care experts to tell me exactly what they thought the most effective ways to bend the cost curve would be. And in fact, there was a pretty broad consensus that the plans that we had put forward around the MedPAC proposal, for example, which is essentially a commission to deal with doctors and health experts finding the best ways to improve quality while lowering costs. That that, in fact, was one of the most important levers to drive health costs savings in the system.

So his ‘plan’ is to use a committee of bureaucrats to suggest how to cut costs. That way you don’t need anything in writing. Exactly where socialized medicine enters the picture is unclear. Just vote for a pig in a poke, and if you don’t like it, just shut up and let him ‘fix’ it. Coincidentally, after his meeting with the director of the CBO, the director made a statement that was opposite of his first statement. Saying that it would not add to the deficit. Remarkable.

MORAN: So you weren’t leaning on him?

OBAMA: Terry, we don’t lean.

He doesn’t lean. He threatens. It’s the Chicago way. Like when he told auto industry creditors that he was the only thing between them and people with machetes. During that meeting, they agreed to give up a significant portion of their ownership shares (30 cents on the dollar), and Obama then gave majority ownership to the UAW.

MORAN: Do you think one of them problems is that Americans use too much health care?

He does, and explains it by saying too many people abuse emergency rooms for visits that should be in doctor’s offices or clinics. And . . .

OBAMA: We’ll have a situation in which we take five tests when we know one test would be sufficient, as long as that one test would have been forwarded to the other doctors, and specialists, and nurses who needed it to help treat the patient. That doesn’t happen right now. But, we’re paying for five tests. So if we could get a system where that one test is properly distributed, we all save money.

I get it. Aside from cutting payments to doctors and hospitals even more, where he expects to save, er I mean steal, a half billion dollars from Medicare and Medicaid, he will also save by telling doctors to do less tests. He didn’t call it defensive medicine, but that’s what he meant. You can not mention defensive medicine without also mentioning tort reform. And he is not going there. Sharing tests would be a good idea of course, but you have to believe it is defensive medicine, a practice necessitated because of trial lawyers, that Obama was really talking about.

And by doing all the above, Obama will have a socialized medical system that not only provides better care, to more people, but is cheaper and, will not add to the deficit. Must be the pixie dust.

I get the picture now. Lets tie doctors to the whipping post and give trial lawyers the whip. There is no mention about tort reform in his plan (whatever it is) or the House plan. Yet, Obama’s stated goal is to reduce the cost of health care. And while you’re going to pay them less,  and pay them by the ‘quality’ of service, as determined by bureaucrats, instead of by services rendered, then you can expect a shortage of doctors and people going into the medical profession. It all sounds like a recipe for disaster with a history for it in Canada and Great Britain.

Bottom line is this. Obama says that his plan will not cause private sector health care to go away. When the truth is it will cause private sector health care to rot on the vine.

Obama also says that his plan will not increase the deficit. Can’t say that with the House plan.

Here’s my question for President Obama when he comes to Pensacola (more pixie dust).

Mr. President, the American people have seen politicians enact legislation that ended up exacerbating the problems they were supposed to fix. For most Americans, results matter more than good intentions. If it turns out that your health care plan does not fulfill what you promise, will you provide in the plan an exit strategy to terminate the plan and pursue a private sector solution before the end of your first term?

related link: Nightline’s Interview with President Obama