Health

On Mammograms

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The current debate over the age at which women should begin taking mammograms is a good example of the kind of pseudoscience that may be introduced once costs becomes a guiding consideration in health care decisions. As I have argued previously, health care is the one thing we should not economize about. Of course, there may be health care necessities that we cannot afford, in which case we should try to figure out how to afford them, for example, through taxation. But the first thing we should do is to be clear as to what the desirable health care options are. Most current versions of the health care plan avoid all the real ways to preserve best procedures while lowering costs.

Politics & Society

The Neoliberal Presidency

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Everyone who has lived through the last few decades knows what has been going on. Every institution in American life, and many throughout the world, have been reorganized in the interests of raising profits. Let us start with the corporations. They previously served several ends including public service and obligations to their employees, to their communities, and to their nations, as well as making profits. Not any more.

Politics & Society

Obama and the Jewish Question

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The Virginia election signals what has been clear for a while: because of the way Obama has governed, the Republicans and conservative Democrats have the upper hand, and that means that they get to define the dominant narrative. According to that narrative, Obama is in trouble because he went too far to the left. In order to regain his political footing, he has to get back to the center: less government, more emphasis on markets, beef up the military, listen to the generals, take most of the social reform agenda off his plate. Jakob Wasserman’s My Life as a German and a Jew, published in 1921 is a good cautionary tale for those who agree with this narrative. In Weimar Germany too, there was a dominant narrative: the German narrative.

Health

Obama’s Political Troubles, and Ours

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A story is being circulated to explain Obama’s political difficulties, especially the losses in Virginia, New Jersey, and New York. According to this story, Obama ran an idealistic campaign, but then encountered the practical difficulties of governing, thereby disillusioning many “independents,” and leaving the way open for the Republican scoundrels to attack him. Like most political spins, this one implicitly portrays “idealists” as naïve, unpractical, and irrelevant. It’s important, therefore, to have a counter-narrative, especially since it also has the merit of being true. It was, broadly speaking, a center-left politics that underlay the extraordinary enthusiasm of the Obama campaigns.

Health

Response to Lauren Reichelt

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Lauren Reichelt, an expert on health care, has taken my blog concerning the health care debate to task on several grounds. First, she has criticized me because I am not familiar with the details of the six bills currently circulating, but instead have focused on what I called the meaning of the legislation. Second, she criticizes me for confusing cost reduction and spending reduction. Finally, she criticizes me because various arguments that I made seem to echo right wing arguments. I would like to respond all three of these criticisms.
First, although the details of the bill are not yet known, its essential content is clear, and has been clear for months; long before the congressional antics the basic ideas were worked out by the administration along with insurance companies, hospitals, drug companies, large corporations and other “players.”

Health

A Bill to Cut Health Care Spending

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I have joined this blog because I want to encourage the development of an independent left. For that to happen, we need to get beyond Obama, and to do that we need to understand his limitations. I welcome comments and further discussion. Today I will take up health care. Universal health care has long been the central plank of a progressive or left platform, and at first glance it would appear that Obama is on the verge of achieving this.