No Bull Mom

Health Care in Simple Terms

Ronald Dworkin is an anesthesiologist whose editorial in today's WSJ describes how health-care reform would affect us on an everyday level. (Dworkin also happens to be the author of Artificial Happiness, a great book about our prescription drug culture.) I love writers who talk plainspeak.

Here's a part of what he wrote:

"When a rich person rolls into the operating room, the nurse asks him, "Would you like a warm blanket? How about a pillow?" The anesthesiologist numbs his skin before putting in the I.V. Every effort is made to make him happy.

People in the operating room pay attention to a rich patient's wishes because they know a rich person can make their lives miserable. He can complain to the hospital president or call the mayor, but the side effect is habitual and all patients receive it.

When a poor person complains, in most environments no one listens. But in health care, through a common private insurance system, poor people go to the same hospitals and doctors as rich people and thus enjoy the benefit of rich people's power.

The public option severs this link. Dissatisfied with the government-run health care, the rich will exit the system. The poor and middle class will be left to flounder alone inside the public system. Government-run health care will become like the public schools."