Krauthammer thinks Obamacare is sinking

Charles Krauthammer is one of my favorite columnists. Oh yes, I know he is anti gun, and a lefty, but I appreciate his clear thinking and logic on every issue he tackles. Health care is an issue he is particularly capable of tackling since he used to be a medical practitioner. In Townhall today, he has a great article on why Obamacare is sinking in which he blames politics as usual for the problem. Krauthammer:

This is not about politics? Then why is it, to take but the most egregious example, that in this grand health care debate we hear not a word about one of the worst sources of waste in American medicine: the insane cost and arbitrary rewards of our malpractice system?

When a neurosurgeon pays $200,000 a year for malpractice insurance before he even turns on the light in his office or hires his first nurse, who do you think pays? Patients, in higher doctor fees to cover the insurance.

And with jackpot justice that awards one claimant zillions while others get nothing -- and one-third of everything goes to the lawyers -- where do you think that money comes from? The insurance companies, who then pass it on to you in higher premiums.

But the greatest waste is the hidden cost of defensive medicine: tests and procedures that doctors order for no good reason other than to protect themselves from lawsuit. Every doctor knows, as I did when I practiced years ago, how much unnecessary medical cost is incurred with an eye not on medicine but on the law.

Tort reform would yield tens of billions in savings. Yet you cannot find it in the Democratic bills. And Obama breathed not a word about it in the full hour of his health care news conference. Why? No mystery. The Democrats are parasitically dependent on huge donations from trial lawyers.

Didn't Obama promise a new politics that puts people over special interests? Sure. And now he promises expanded, portable, secure, higher-quality medical care -- at lower cost! The only thing he hasn't promised is to extirpate evil from the human heart. That legislation will be introduced next week.

Pretty much says it all. Go and read.

Meanwhile, another favorite columnist also has a health care column today, also at Townhall.com. Thomas Sowell's article Magician Politics points out that Obama is trying to distract us from the fact that socialized medicine is going to cost us more by talking about insurance companies and the CEOs of big drug companies. But in an effort to lower some of the cost, the Obama administration may have an idea where to look (other than at trial lawyers of course.) A quote from Sowell's piece:

The government does not have some magic wand that can "bring down the cost of health care." It can buy a smaller quantity or lower quality of medical care, as other countries with government-run medical care do.

It can decide not to spend as much money on the elderly as is being spent now. That can save a lot of money-- if you think having a parent die earlier is a bargain.

The idea of a "duty to die" has been making some headway in recent years around the fringes of the left. It is perfectly consistent with the fundamental notion of the left, that decisions should be transferred from ordinary citizens to government elites.

And to lend credence to the thought that this is exactly what is planned under Obamacare, please read Michelle Malkin's piece today in Townhall.com entitled Ghoulish Science Plus Obamacare Equals Health Hazard. Malkin writes about one of the Czars Obama has appointed (without Senate advise and consent), John Holdren, and his long fascination with "population control." It is also worth a read.