Would you Buy a Used Healthcare System from this Congressman?

First do no harm

Hippocrates

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/19/AR2011011903344.html

It's hard to get into medical school, and that is a good thing, because you want your doctor to be smart. Understanding the complexities of the human body, the multiple manifestations of disease, and the benefits and potential risks of treatment requires assimilating large amounts of information and processing it correctly, often a difficult task. Good physicians learn that very few diseases are simple, and even the most straightforward treatment has potential pitfalls that must be considered. The very human desire to find a simple unitary explanation for all diseases does not work in the real world. This habit of considering all sides of an issue does have it's drawbacks. Doctors tend not to be very good salesman.

Salesmanship requires total faith in your product, and a clear conscious, no mater what the actual facts. Commitment, unshakeable resolve, and the ability to inspire others tend you get you ahead in business, or elected to political office, but doesn't keep melanoma from spreading. Unless you are a plastic surgeon or cosmetic dermatologist, where people aren't sick, the ability to sell yourself does not make you a better doctor.

The problem we are presently facing is that those very people who have succeeded by their power of personality have decided to apply their situation dependent skill set to medicine. Politician are using the same tactics which worked getting themselves elected to one of the most complex set of issues ever confronted. Just as pneumonia does not respond to good intentions, health care policy will not respond to congressional hand-waving. Politicians from both sides of the isle oversimplify intractable issues and ignore contrary evidence. This works well trying to sell a used car or win an election, but does great damage in the healthcare debate.

Obamacare does address problems such as preexisting conditions and inability to obtain coverage as it's advocates continually emphasize . However, they do not discuss how it achieves these goals at by imposing economy damaging taxes and mandates. Escalating costs and demographic trends are ignored, as are the unrealistic demands are placed on care-givers and an already stressed delivery system.Obamacare critics resort to scare tactics, with vague exhortations about socialism and baseless carping about death panels. They refuse to address the heartbreaking shortcomings of our healthcare system, and the millions it presently fails.

We need a “medical' approach to healthcare. The ability to understand the complexities of the system, combined with a realization that any therapy will have side-effects. The Greeks still have something to tell us.