Obamacare has not been thoroughly thought out

As anyone who follows politics may have noticed, it is nearly impossible to listen to an Obama press conference and not be asked to accept that there is a “health care crisis” in our midst. In its eagerness to get reform passed, moreover, the administration has justified itself in ignoring the glaring problems with its health care “fix,” relegating facts to the point of irrelevance.

While President Barack Obama renders the health care system a dead letter, however, the American people are reluctant to let him reshape it without a thorough investigation of the facts at hand.

To those who seek clarity on “universal” health care, there is no shortage of facts available to edify them. As most people know by now, Britain, France and Canada already have examples of government-run health-care systems in place. These countries provide a useful analogy for anyone trying to predict how health care for all will manifest itself in our country. There is a lot to be gleaned from our own experiments with government health care in the institutions of Medicare and Medicaid, not to mention veterans’ hospitals.

Much to our chagrin, though, there is currently little market for facts among those who are pushing radical reform. As such, there is little recognition of the troubles other countries have had with their endeavors with universal health care. At the same time, there is a tendency to marginalize vaunted institutions like the Congressional Budget Office when they predict that the democratic proposals on the table will increase health costs in the area of $1 trillion ““ or more.

The media is a terrific first line of defense against truth-telling. In the first place, the media boosts the chances for radical health care reform simply by glossing over many of the more complicated, but important, details. But what is even more disconcerting is the vast amount of time most news outlets give to the “universal” side of the debate over the more traditional side.

ABC’s recent special “Questions for the President: Prescription for America” is just one example of how media “priming” has influenced the debate. For one full hour of prime time, Obama was given the chance to answer questions about his health-care plan from people hand-picked by ABC News, a network whose coverage of the plan has been three times more favorable than unfavorable. When the Republican National Committee requested that it be allowed to air ads with opposing views during the session, ABC sent back a trenchant “no.” The decks were stacked in Obama’s favor.

But the Democrats cannot leave it to the media to do all their dirty work; something as big as health care calls for desperate measures. Hence, we see attempts by Obama and others to present it in apocalyptic terms. Their line is that if we don’t pass health care now, we may not make it out alive.

There exists a bit of drama in everything Obama says. He insists that the cost of health insurance has reached a critical maximum. Never mind that there is more to pay for: Our technology is far better than it used to be and we are providing more services than ever before. At the same time, he repeatedly insists that everybody agrees that our health-care system is broken, but this is a pointless statement given that everybody also disagrees about what reform should entail.

And where’s the love from the “community organizer?” Just think, when the Democrats were ill with Bush Derangement Syndrome, peaceful protest was considered the highest form of patriotism. Now, as people dig in their heels and show up in droves to town-hall meetings to protest nationalized health care, suddenly “community organizing” becomes a black art.

When Nancy Pelosi was asked to comment about the recent wave of protests against Obamacare, she reduced them to people “carrying swastikas and symbols like that.” Sporting a Chanel suit, her colleague, Barbara Boxer, quipped that the protesters she’d seen are too “well-dressed” to be real.

There’s also a rumor going around that the protests are being organized by ““ gasp ““ insurance companies who are part of a vast right-wing conspiracy.

If you listen to the Democrats, you would not think that any of the difference of opinion over health-care reform deserves a second look. Brimming with confidence after the stimulus package and the vote of confidence on cap and trade, many Obama apostles seemed to take for granted that they could pass health care as well and bring even more of the free market under government control.

But Obama’s detractors are not fringe elements. If they were, we could as easily discount many of his town halls as equally insincere. As of last week, the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 4 best-selling books on the New York Times list were all directed against Obama’s dangerous trajectory. Rasmussen Reports polls also show us that only 47 percent of people somewhat support Obamacare, as opposed to 74 percent who approve of the quality of care they now get.

Considering the strength of the opposition, the Democrats will not succeed by treating protesters like lepers; in fact, they could spoil their chances if they do. If Obama is going to get anything with the words “health care” in it passed, he will need to meet people halfway or be more deliberative about a plan. After passing a stimulus package that no one bothered to read, he doesn’t want to give the impression that not thinking things through is a habit.

E-mail Pherson at [email protected]. Send general comments to [email protected]