August 24, 2007

It just doesn't get any better than this. Today's Washington Times reports that Dr. Hillary Rodham Clinton (M.D., Beltway University School of Medicine; internship, Rose Law Firm Clinic; Residency, White House Travel Office Hospital) "promised yesterday that as President she would improve health care quality by raising standards for providers, educating patients and requiring insurers to reward innovation."

Now, this is rich on so very many levels. Federalism? Fuggettaboutit. The feds now will formulate "quality" standards for the delivery of health care services, a preposterous notion on the face of it in that much of the quality (or "art") dimension of medical care cannot be quantified, and so federal bureaucrats issuing edicts from the Beltway will have not a clue as to how to define, measure, or enforce such standards. Hillary is running on the basis of her "experience," in part, and this little window into her thinking (if it can characterized as such) reveals much about that purported experience, and it is not flattering.

Educating patients? About what, precisely? Will there be mini-me School of Medicine coursework on the HHS website? Or is it far more likely that patients will be admonished with such gems as "Be sure to turn your head before you cough," or "Don't pick a doctor at random," or "Generic drugs save big bucks," or "Brush your teeth at least twice a day."

Will Dr. Hillary become a sidekick for Dr. Isidore Rosenfeld Sunday mornings on Fox News? Or will she have her own "Ask Dr. Hillary" newspaper column? The point is that the potential for the infantilization of Americans is enormous when the Beltway takes on the task of "educating" us, an outcome as assured as it is appealing for those like Dr. Hillary who view the American people as children.

As for requiring insurers to "reward innovation," what happened to cost (i.e., spending) control? Will Dr. Hillary endorse high incentive payments for, say, new drugs? Not bloody likely, as my British friends say while idling their time on endless waiting lists in vain hope for the kind of care that medical socialism cannot deliver. The kind that HillaryCare would have promised for all of us.

I think that Dr. Hillary is about to learn the self-destructive properties of a lack of respect for Americans and the choices that they would make freely if only the Dr. Hillaries of the world would butt out. Because the ongoing attempt to talk down to everyone leads inexorably to a tendency to talk down to oneself. Does Hillary actually believe that the federal behemouth can measure medical quality, design a system of incentives yielding an increase in it, "educate" a population that cannot be induced to diet, and "reward" innovation while attempting to squeeze budget savings? Or does she not believe it, preferring instead to engage in the cynicism for which the Clintons are so renowned in matters large and small? It is far from clear as to which would be worse.

Posted by Benjamin Zycher at August 24, 2007 10:56 AM

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