A Cure That's Worse than the Disease

A Cure That's Worse than the Disease
by Robert Yoho

You have all heard the saying, "Be careful what you wish for, because you might just get it." That old adage takes an even greater significance when it comes to the matters of health care and prescription drugs for seniors.

During the Democratic convention, we heard Vice President Al Gore continue the liberals' seemingly endless crusade against successful American corporations. He criticized the oil companies, the HMOs, and the pharmaceutical companies.

Early in the same speech, Gore also stated that his presidency would find the cures to diseases such as cancer and AIDS. However, he then proceeded to criticize the pharmaceutical companies, whose employees will be called upon to discover these remarkable new cures.

Unless Mr. Gore is once again talking out of both sides of his mouth, then he cannot canonize the pharmaceutical companies with the same lips that earlier sought to demonize them.

Are the drug companies really the evil and heartless conglomerates that hate the poor and needy, or are they responsible for bringing us the latest life-saving drugs? Surely the same greedy pharmaceutical companies that are "gouging" their poor customers on a daily basis cannot be the same people entrusted to bring us tomorrow's miracle medicines.

Meanwhile, the Gore and Lieberman Traveling Medicine Show continues to sell this snake oil to the American people. And the gullible continue to buy it.

At this time in America, it is fashionable--almost trendy--to hate your Health Maintenance Organization. Moviegoers laugh when someone criticizes an HMO on the silver screen. Stand-up comedians sometimes devote an entire portion of their acts to criticizing the HMOs. Everybody makes fun of their HMO; everybody hates them. Everybody routinely laughs and/or curses at them.

We hate the HMOs because they often limit the number and scope of the treatments you can get. They try to steer you to utilize a certain hospital. The HMO limits the number of its member doctors. The HMO's one-size-fits-all-approach cuts down on your choices. This is only a scattering of the reasons.

In theory, the purpose of an HMO is to provide its clients with competent health care at a manageable price, while also providing some reasonable level of profits to the organization. There is certainly nothing wrong with that outcome as their goal.

But underneath the humor and venom, there is also some danger in attacking the HMOs. I am certainly not naïve enough to think that there can't be improvements in our managed care organizations. Yet you're worse than naïve if you believe that the best solution to the HMO bureaucrats can come from the politicians in Washington.

The liberal Democrat leadership wants you to hate your HMO. They are delighted when you criticize them. They want your HMO to go belly-up. The HMOs that manage to survive this verbal and financial onslaught will then be litigated out of existence by roving packs of ravenous trial lawyers. Just wait until you see the liberals' alternative to the stingy and hated bureaucrats at your beleaguered HMO? In their place, your friendly and compassionate Democratic Party will give you the Mother of all HMOs. This HMO from hell will be operated with all the warmth of the Internal Revenue Service, the generosity of Ebeneezer Scrooge, and the efficiency of Barney Fife.

And what will this government-run HMO nightmare do for you? It'll tell you the number and scope of the treatments you are permitted. It will demand that you utilize a designated hospital. It will restrict the fields of medicine that aspiring doctors can enter. It will punish both the physicians and the patients who attempt to go outside of their HMOs for better treatment. Its countless pages of rules and mandates will permanently remove the few choices that you currently enjoy. And should the liberals succeed in removing health care from the private sector, then you will no longer be able to complain to your government. The largest and most dictatorial health maintenance organization in human history will be the one run by your loving and benevolent government. Choices in health care will be a thing of the past.

Albert Gore is only pro-choice in taking the lives of the unborn; he will remove any other choices for the post-born. "President" Gore would remove your choices about which foods or tobacco products you may consume. Gore is blocking the door so parents cannot remove their children from the decrepit and failing inner city public schools. He opposes the right of private property owners to determine the best management practices for their soil, vegetation, and wetlands. Gore opposes the right to choose the investment of your Social Security taxes. He wants to take away your right to choose your health care options. But worst of all, he wants to eliminate your choices about where you can best spend your own money.

Gore is leading the crusade to implement "Hillary Care," the plan for socialized medicine that the public overwhelmingly rejected. But despite that fact, Clinton and Gore are still trying to force it down our throats one nasty spoonful at a time.

So the next time your gripe about your HMO, remember to be careful what you wish for. The disease might be better than the cure.