Obama Praised Daschle's Federal Health Board Idea

Barack Obama said earlier this year that Tom Daschle's idea of creating a Federal Health Board (modeled after the Federal Reserve) to manage the nation's medical system showed "great promise."

"The American health care system is in crisis, and workable solutions have been blocked for years by deeply entrenched ideological divisions," Obama wrote in a blurb on the back of Daschle's book, Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis. "Sen. Daschle brings fresh thinking to this problem, and his Federal Reserve for Health concept holds great promise for bridging this intellectual chasm and, at long last, giving this nation the health care it deserves."

Now that Daschle is expected to shepard Obama's health care plan through Congress as Secretary of Health and Human Services this takes on an added importance.

"Like the Federal Reserve, the Federal Health Board would be composed of highly independent experts insulated from politics. Congress and the White House would relinquish some of their health-policy decisions to it. For example, a shift to a more effective drug service would be accomplished without an act of Congress or the White House."

However benign Daschle tries to make the idea sound, just as, over time, the power of the Federal Reserve grew dramatically beyond its original intentions (ironically, the more it messed up, the more power it got) its easy to see the Federal Health Board morph into an all-powerful entity dictating every aspect of health policy over time, with limited oversight, as America marches toward a socialized system.

“However benign Daschle tries to make the idea sound, just as, over time, the power of the Federal Reserve grew dramatically beyond its original intentions (ironically, the more it messed up, the more power it got) its easy to see the Federal Health Board morph into an all-powerful entity dictating every aspect of health policy over time, with limited oversight, as America marches toward a socialized system.”

This is “industrial policy” applied to health care. If industrial policy worked generally, the Soviet Union would have ended up being king of the hill. If industrial policy worked in health care, then the U.S. health system (which despite all its flaws is the most market-oriented) would never have achieved unquestioned dominance in medical innovation. Whether innovation is measured in terms of number of Nobel prizes awarded in medicine, number of patents awarded in pharmaceuticals, new medical devices or surgical techniques, the US share far exceeds in share of global GDP. But if industrial policy worked in health care, then countries such as Britain and Canada—which have exactly the kinds of centralized “expert” boards championed by Daschle—should be consistently beating the U.S. in the race to find the best techniques for preventing, diagnosing or treating disease. At a less abstract level, if industrial policy worked in health care, then politicians needing the most advanced techniques for doing brain surgery would be flying to England, Canada, France or Germany to get treated rather than staying in the US. In this regard, Senator Kennedy’s decision about where to get surgery last August sends a strong signal about just how bankrupt Daschle’s idea is.

Someone more clever than I am can figure out the exact language for a bumper sticker, but it should be something to the effect:
From the folks who engineered the financial crisis: Obamacare!

If you like the financial bailout, you’ll LOVE Obamacare!

If you want the health system to look like the financial system, support Obamacare!

"Free Health care"?

No such thing as free lunch. Plus, one can expect inevitable rationing, meaning that the quality of care will deteriorate, and death rates from chronic illness will increase. Contributing to the decreasing quality of care will be the decreasing quality of physicians. They will be retiring earlier and not be replaced sufficiently, because the profession will become increasingly unattractive to the best and brightest collegians.

Hmmm...
“the Federal Health Board would be composed of highly independent experts insulated from politics”

Insulated from politics - how?
These decisions will be political, “insulation” or not.
Independent - meaning what?
Independently wealthy?

Ross Perot famously said the devil is in the details. Well, the devil’s here in the generalities too.

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