Mr. Obama is trying to sell his Plan for Healthcare Reform. He knows that much of the public is wary of various parts of his plan and that it will not be a slam-dunk sale. How do I know this? By observing Mr. Obama and his actions.
A Salesperson with a good product has two basic tasks that must be performed in order to successfully sell the product. First, he must identify his target market. Second, he must give that market the opportunity to understand the value of the offering. A sales person with a good product never lies and always under-promises and over-delivers.
If Mr. Obama had a good product, he would not feel the need to scare us to rush into healthcare reform. If he had a good product, he would identify the market and give it the opportunity to see the value of his product. When you have a product to sell, you always emphasize the strong points and try to gloss over the weak ones. One of the best ways to cover the weak points of your product is to rush the buying decision. Ever hear the phrase, “This offer is only good until End of Business Today” or “We only have one left at this price.”? Why the rush? What is the ‘good-for-today-only-offer’ hiding?
This reminds me too much of the Stimulus Debate. We were told that we needed to pass legislation, even without first reading it, because if we didn’t, we would sink into a Depression so deep that only Big Government could address it. The result was what Mr. Obama had hoped for: the opportunity to address the problem the way he wanted without public debate. Billions are being spent (with few controls) and on more pork than any previous bill ever passed by Congress. It was a brilliant strategy to take advantage of the Presidential Honeymoon. Would this have happened if the debate had been extended? if the Congress and the people had been able to read the bill before it was passed? I think not.
There is no evidence that I have seen that shows that throwing money at our economic problems has done more good than harm. I fear the same will be true of Healthcare Reform. Not having seen what Congress is preparing, I can’t say I am for or against ‘The Plan.” I can say that I am against rushing something as important as this.
Let’s have the debate. Let’s start by defining the problem.
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July 6, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Health care -- how do we move forward
If you would like to follow the health care debate, the overuse, misuse and underuse of healthcare visit http://www.ilovebenefits.wordpress.com
July 11, 2009 at 8:22 am
Andrew
Sir, I stumbled upon your blog by accident, and couldn’t help but read your opinion on Obama and the current healthcare reform. I just wanted to say that I agree with you completely. You made a great point about “rushing the buying process”. That is precisely what Mr. Obama is doing, and I fear it will cost us, our children, and even our grand children much economic suffering in the future. Like you, I was willing to give Obama a chance before attacking his policies and principles. However, in his short time in office, he has done nothing but move us closer to Socialism and dangerous economic practices. Oh, what I would give to have a Reagan-esque administration once again!
July 24, 2009 at 11:35 am
Dr. Max S. Chartrand
I am surprised at the abysmal ignorance and lack of foresight of those who support Obama and liberal Democrat’s power grab. If this shoddy, unconstitutional piece of despotic legislation passes, we will witness:
1) Closings of private hospitals all over the U.S. withing 24 months.
With the displacement of up to 1/6 of the jobs and payrolls in the U.S. and the high taxes it will bring, the U.S. economy will make the current liberal-spawned recession look like a picnic.
2) County Hospitals will begin to resemble their dirty, over-crowded counterparts in the Third World.
3) Many procedures will become rationed because of enormous costs and overuse that results when anything is without individual responsibility.
4) A huge shortage of physicians in many areas of the U.S. and medical schools will start closing, as medical research units begin to flounder and close.
5) The complete decimation of the private insurance industry over time, as the inefficient, subsidized so-called “option” gains “only” in front of it, except for the ruling elite who will exempt themselves from being subject to the healthcare of the little people.
6) Taxes will soar, and actuaries will decide who receives what in an effort to “contain costs”; euthenasia will become official policy.
7) Since tort reform is out of the question for liberal Democrats who are beholden to the malpractive lawyers, defensive medicine will continue to lose us $1 Trillion per year in frivolous litigation and high liability insurance costs (not a single socialized medical system allows the kind of free-for-all litigation we have here!).
9) So, one asks, why are Obama and his minions so desparate to get this rammed down our throats before anyone can read the fine print? Power, total and absolute power found only in total government. End of freedom and individual responsibility. End of allegiance to a higher authority. End of our nation (and the world) as we know it.
I speak from long experience on this issue. Is this what you really, really want?
July 27, 2009 at 7:37 pm
The Audacity of “NOPE” II « Responsibility-Freedom Demands It
[...] court press on Healthcare Reform in the middle of June. Could it be that the people see through his rush to pass a plan that has not been seen by the public, let alone the Congress that will vote on it? So, there is hope that healthcare reform will not [...]
August 17, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Mr. Obama on Healthcare (Interpreted) « Responsibility-Freedom Demands It
[...] can’t afford the politics of delay and defeat when it comes to health care,” (If we don’t get this done quickly, people will have time to see what this legislation will ac… Obama said after meeting with doctors, nurses and other health care workers at Children’s [...]
September 9, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Dr. Max Chartrand
I am against the federal government “reforming” healthcare. That’s too much power for an entity that is at heart of our current problems. The solutions are so obvious it almost hurts to see them tiptoeing around them:
1) If we want competition, we can have it by allowing competition across state lines.
2) Remove hundreds of state and federal mandates that continue to drive up costs by requiring needless coverage (such as maternity, etc, for those who do not need it).
3) Tort reform needs to go much further than merely putting caps on non-economic suffering. The spectre of malpractice claims looms no matter how low or high the caps are.
4) Expand Medical Savings Accounts (MSAs), which has proven the most successful health insurance model for reducing costs, increasing quality of care, and incentivizing better health & lifestyle choices.
5) Use the Medical MSA model of health insurance become an option for Medicaid and for MediCare and for those who cannot afford insurance, a voucher system can be made available.
October 26, 2009 at 3:49 am
Kathleen
Dear Sir,
I stumbled upon your website by accident too. I am a Belgian living in Spain and by no means an expert in healthcare. But I am flabbergasted by some of the responses I hear from your fellow-countrymen. Here in Spain I enjoy free healthcare, as everyone does, and it is a gift from heaven.
In my eyes healthcare and healthinsurance can only be the government´s duty. It works, it really does, come and have a look over here.
And why are people in America so scared of socialism?
I don´t get that at all. If you´d see what socialism has done for my Flemish hometown, you´d welcome it too.
Anyway, wishing you all the best,
Kathleen
October 26, 2009 at 7:20 pm
ttoes
Hi Kathleen.
Thank you for taking the time to comment about my blog and the comments you see on it. Though I, too, am no expert on health care, like you I have an opinion. Mine is that our government would run health care very poorly and that would hurt not just Americans, but people from most countries. Proof that our government would run health care poorly is easy to find by just looking at our largest public health care program, Medicare. It survives only because its costs are transferred to the people who provide services to those who have private insurance. Medicare is rife with fraud and has very high administrative costs. Most people who are able supplement that coverage.
If there were no longer a profit motive for pharmaceutical companies, think what new medicines would not be. Think about the medical innovations that would not be. Ask any Canadian who had to flee the Canadian Health system to get lifesaving care in the U.S.
We do need to reform our system, but a European style universal health system, in my view, has little or no chance of success and great chances of making things worse. This is obviously my opinion and I share it with you as you do your opinion with me.
Thanks again for commenting.