A Doctor’s View of Obama’s Healthcare Plans - WSJ.com

A Doctor’s View of Obama’s Healthcare Plans - WSJ.com: "Prevention of a disease, we all assume, should save us money, right? An ounce of prevention . . . ? Alas, If only such aphorisms were true we’d hand out apples each day and our problems would be over...

It is true that if the prevention strategies we are talking about are behavioral things—eat better, lose weight, exercise more, smoke less, wear a seat belt—then they cost very little and they do save money by keeping people healthy.

But if your preventive strategy is medical, if it involves us, if it consists of screening, finding medical conditions early, shaking the bushes for high cholesterols, or abnormal EKGs, markers for prostate cancer such as PSA, then more often than not you don’t save anything and you might generate more medical costs. Prevention is a good thing to do, but why equate it with saving money when it won’t?"

The author is Abraham Verghese is Professor and Senior Associate Chair for the Theory and Practice of Medicine at Stanford University.

Not sure what Dr Verghese's position is on nationalized health care - but what he is clear about is that it is not going to save money in any way EXCEPT by rationing health care. Once again - who do you want rationing health care, faceless bureaucrats in Washington, or you and your family? If we fix many of the government policies that currently distort the choices being made (procedure-driven Medicare reimbursement methodology, too-low deductibles, subsidization of employer-provided healthcare vs individual-provided, lack of competition in insurance market, plaintiff-slanted tort system, etc) we can make huge strides in improving what is already the best health care system in the world. And we won't have to give up control over the most personal decisions in our lives to get there.