Health Care Reform and the Wonderful Wizards of Wall Street

by: Quality Counts

Wed Sep 17, 2008 at 09:29:07 AM EDT

At the center of this unfolding melodrama that fascinates press and pundits are two candidates who have great faith in different political gods.  If you ignore the sound bites and instead study the careers of the two candidates, the choices they have made, and the detailed policies they advocate, these differences become quite stark.  And perhaps nowhere are their differences in economic principles and practices more clearly delineated than in their proposals for health care reform.

The merits of Barack Obama's approach to health care reform are described clearly and succinctly in an excellent commentary in the September 16 Wall Street Journal http://online.wsj.com/article/... .  Obama's plan is grounded in a realistic assessment of what works in the current system and what must be improved or replaced to make affordable health care a reality for all Americans.  It embodies a conservative philosophy of change that keeps the baby while discarding the bath water.  It is predicated on an engaged citizenry that will actively support incremental reforms in which government does not replace private enterprise and eliminate freedom of choice, but actively works to protect individuals against overly powerful corporations and to provide viable options for people who are not well served by the private sector.  In sum, Obama's health care proposals are completely consistent with my characterization of his guiding principles.

John McCain places his trust in the invisible hand of unrestricted free market economic theory.  He believes that prosperity can be achieved by removing the shackles that government has placed on this invisible hand and by providing resources and incentives to the most prosperous and powerful so they are better equipped to drive the economic engines that create jobs and opportunities for the nation at large.  Success at the bottom depends upon success at the top, where the wisdom of the market is combined with the wisdom of those the market has chosen to prosper and command.  Government meddling destroys market discipline, and market discipline is essential to the welfare of Middle America.  If politicians and bureaucrats would only lower corporate taxes, remove government regulations and leave America's business to the Wizard of Wall Street, all would be well.      

John McCain's health care reform package is constructed around his free market principles.  Health care is a personal responsibility that is best exercised in a market in which individuals and families purchase their health insurance from private corporations whose fiduciary obligations are to their stockholders rather than to their customers.  But John McCain believes that with the help of tax credits equal to less than half the current cost of health insurance, the invisible hand will work its magic to provide the health care that American's want and deserve.

Unfortunately for John McCain, there have been a few recent bumps on the yellow brick road that leads to the Wizards of Wall Street.  The recent meltdown of some of our most venerable financial institutions was not the work of foreign enemies, though it may give them great comfort to learn how adept we have become at producing self-inflicted wounds.  All of a sudden, John McCain has become a champion of "appropriate" government regulation who will protect us against the unrestricted free market he denies he ever advocated.  Yet an analysis in Health Affairs http://content.healthaffairs.o... concludes that his current free market based health care reform proposals, if enacted, threaten to leave up to 20,000,000 American workers without the health insurance they currently enjoy.  States will no longer be able to regulate insurers in this new national market for health insurance.  By removing corporate deductions for the cost of health insurance benefits for employees, McCain will create a massive tax increase for American workers who will experience reductions in take home pay courtesy of the same straight-talker who can't stop falsely accusing his opponent of recklessly proposing new taxes for middle-class Americans.  

Like the Wizard of Oz, John McCain has built a campaign based on elaborate deceptions that distract attention from pressing issues that affect the health and wealth of the people of Michigan, many of whom have not, for all their good faith and hard work, been blessed recently by the invisible hand of free market economics.  If and when Toto pulls the curtain and makes deception impossible, excuses and promises become substitutes for leadership and policy.  But look beyond the current news cycle and it becomes obvious that the McCain-Palin formula for health care is not an aberration.  It is the canary in the mine, the warning of danger ahead, not only for hard working Main Street but also for the true elitists, the Wizards of Wall Street who are too short-sighted to realize that their future is inextricably bound to the health of the American middle class on whose shoulders their fortunes rest.

John McCain and Sarah Palin want this election to be about four celebrities running for the two highest offices in our country.  Barack Obama and Joe Biden want this election to be about you.  If you don't believe this, just take a careful look at their competing plans to deal with America's health care crisis.