Eaton: Lisa Madigan doesn’t see dangers of Obamacare

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Eaton

Updated: May 9, 2012 10:11AM

It was no surprise last week that Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan joined 10 other Democratic attorneys general in filing an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court, supporting the Obama administration’s effort to put government in control of our health care.

After all, Madigan served closely with Obama when they passed through the Illinois Senate on their way to higher office.

Illinois is now officially listed in historical documents before the Supreme Court as supporting the right of the federal government to mandate Americans to buy medical insurance.

Mortgage companies require homeowners insurance and banks require comprehensive insurance on car loans, so why shouldn’t the federal government require health care insurance? That’s the basis for Obama’s health care plan.

In his view, health care insurance is also a must that should not be entrusted to individual states. Suppose every state required it except, say, New Hampshire? All the health care deadbeats would presumably flock to the “Live Free or Die” state. How fitting would that be?

“There can be no serious contention that existing defects in the country’s markets for health care and health insurance — markets that accounted for 17.6 percent of the entire national economy in 2009 — are somehow local in origin, in scope or in effect,” the attorneys general’s brief said.

And Madigan betrayed us as she argues away our state’s rights.

Last year, within days of President Obama signing the federal takeover of health care into law, state Sen. Christine Radogno (R-Lemont) sought a legal opinion on Obamacare from Madigan’s office.

Radogno, the Senate minority leader, asked whether the mandatory insurance requirement was a violation of the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution? She also asked if the legislation violated the 10th Amendment by usurping powers that are reserved to the states.

Madigan’s office answered “no” and “no.”

In March, the Supreme Court will listen to arguments on the points Radogno raised. The justices also will review whether, if the insurance mandate were found invalid, the Obama plan would be allowed to legally take over our health care system.

It’s all about ensuring accessibility to adequate health care, both sides will say, and that demands that everyone pay their fair share.

But such a system is fatally flawed, free marketers say. Alieta Eck, a dentist who represents the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons, is convinced that Obamacare will destroy America’s premier health care system.

“Profit causes more people to supply a service or product. Increased supply causes competition, and the one who provides the best quality at the lowest price wins,” Eck said. “This is the free market. The only impediment to a free market in medical care is government intervention.”

The plan that Lisa Madigan and some of her peers believe in so strongly could eventually erode our good health care, just when aging Baby Boomers are needing more medical care.

Every American will have access — either through their private insurance or Obamacare — and that means more people will be calling their doctors for appointments. But as in Medicaid, those doctors will likely be paid $1 for every $10 their services cost. A growing number of Illinois doctors now refuse to take Medicaid patients because reimbursement is so low and slow.

Something similar looms with Obamacare, Eck said.

“The Affordable Care Act will prove this point dramatically, as demand will skyrocket and prices will be fixed. Once the physician realizes that he cannot turn a profit or recoup his educational costs and overhead, he will slow down and retire early,” Eck said. “Only the wealthy who are willing pay the going market price will be able to avail themselves of the best medical care in the world.”

Eck said doctors are unhappy with what has been tried in Massachusetts.

“We can see what Obamacare will bring to the nation by looking at the results of RomneyCare, its prototype in Massachusetts. Gov. Mitt Romney promised that people would all be ‘insured,’ enabling everyone to see the doctor in his office, sparing the taxpayer from having to pay a more expensive emergency room bill,” Eck said. “But as more people attempt to avail themselves of their newfound ‘coverage,’ they find they cannot find a physician who is willing and able to see them. The average wait is now two months, so they still go to the emergency room.”

The only way out of Obamacare, if Lisa Madigan’s legal opinion prevails, is for Illinois to make dramatic changes — similar to what New Jersey and Kansas are considering now in putting health care back into the community’s and families’ hands. Where they belong.

“If we restore the free market to medicine, more primary care physicians will be able to set up practices where patients can pay a fair price for medical care,” Eck said. “Philanthropy, hospitals and churches can set up non-government free clinics where the poor can access medical care. Retiring Baby Boomers can form an army of volunteers in their communities.”

An innovative plan would have the state provide medical malpractice protection for a physician who volunteers at least four hours a week at such a clinic. This would diminish much of the need for Medicaid, allowing many billions spent on it to revert back to the taxpayers.

Too bad Lisa Madigan doesn’t get it.

Fran Eaton is a Southland resident who co-founded and edits the conservative political blog, illinoisreview.com