Saturday, July 25, 2009

What Side is Peggy Noonan On?

I confess that I am not a follower of Peggy Noonan, she tends to be a bit too much, but alas seeing the title of the most emailed article on the WSJ on health care I clicked and there I was smack dab in the middle of a Noonan article.

Now as some of you may know I have gathers some knowledge on health care over the past 42 years, not enough ever to practice, God forbid, I like the disease more than the patient, a kind of Dr House persona, but at least I think I know a bit.

Now Noonan makes several points:

1. First she states "make it illegal for a doctor not to charge or a hospital to fudge around, with mercy, in its billing" but the point is not billing nothing and not charging but billing and ever collecting. One will always have a bad bunch who over bill, but for the most part physicians are the most honest people I know. Just look at the alternative, bankers and politicians, and I live in New Jersey, here they pols make the Mafia look like Mother Theresa!

2. The Bill does "allow for or mandate taxpayer funding of abortion" and this of course is a hot button, it is an in your face from the left wing Democrats. Yet the Bill gives an option for Christian Scientists to seek their own treatment from Practitioners and Nurses. This inclusion was really dumb on the part of the Dems, primarily because there are so many Catholic Hospitals and this would drive them out of existence. I know that Catholics are not well thought of, being one, but why eliminate what they do that has great value. There were ways to allow this without mandating. But again and alas it was the in your face politics from the left wing Dems.

3 This I totally disagree with! She states "educated people who are at the top of American life feel they have the right to make very public criticisms of . . . let’s call it the private, pleasurable but health-related choices of others..." She continues "Under a national health-care plan we might be hearing that a lot. You don’t exercise, you smoke, you drink, you eat too much, and “the rest of us have to pay for it.”" Now here I depart. I depart strongly. If you were to drive drunk, text all the time, and do so at 90 mph, then I want you not only to pay more for your insurance but I want you off the road, period. If you are a fatty, smoke, and fail in general to care for yourself, and we have a universal plan, then I want you to either stop or pay more.

Now look at the new Surgeon General, a bit over the limit. Now look at the web site of the Surgeon General. It has a page on childhood obesity and a pledge that it asks children to sign. The Surgeon General letter for children states:

"Help Prevent Childhood Overweight and Obesity and Secure a Healthy Future for our Children

Today, more than 12.5 million children – 17 percent of children and adolescents ages 2 to 19 -are overweight. Teaching children the importance of healthy eating and physical activity at a young age is necessary to help prevent overweight and obesity in this country. Together we can make a difference.

As Surgeon General, I ask you to join this movement to help children achieve and maintain a healthy weight by making this promise:

Surgeon General’s Pledge

I pledge to:

  • Be a role model by making healthy choices for myself.
  • Help children be physically active through everyday play and participation in sports.
  • Support children’s healthy eating habits.

A healthy future is our gift to our children.

Signature"

One may very well ask if this pledge will be removed when the new Surgeon General arrives. One of her parents allegedly died of Diabetes and she appears to be obese if not morbidly so. Yes Ms. Noonan, people in glass houses, well not quite that aphorism! But you get the point.