Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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Say No to Obamacare by JOHN HOOD Politicians of all parties, at all levels of government, have been debating healthcare virtually nonstop since the early 1990s. If you���re tired of hearing about it, I have some bad news about the new year. Healthcare is going to be a key political issue in 2013, perhaps even the dominant one. At the federal level, the budget debate will inevitably center on healthcare, the fastest-growing major category of federal spending. And here in North Carolina, among the first decisions that new Gov. Pat McCrory and the General Assembly will have to make is whether to assist the Obama administration in implementing its costly and unpopular healthcare legislation. I expect that state leaders will say no. I expect them to say no to building and funding a state-run health insurance exchange for two reasons. First, regardless of the apparent structure of the exchange, all the important policy decisions will be made in Washington, not Raleigh. Second, a federally run exchange has practical and legal problems that, once manifested, will give Republicans and moderate Democrats in Congress the leverage they need to rescind or rewrite Obamacare���s most-egregious provisions. I also expect North Carolina policymakers to say no to expanding Medicaid, which is the single-biggest part of Obamacare in scope and cost. Even in its current form, Medicaid has become a fiscal black hole for state government. Resources that might otherwise have been spent on education, public safety or transportation, or returned to the private economy in the form of lower taxes, have been sucked into Medicaid���s event horizon. Expanding the program would be the ultimate triumph of hope over experience, with the fantasy of ���free federal money��� thrown in to bamboozle the credulous. Despite more than two decades of intense discussion about health care, there still remains a wide gap in perception of the nature, causes and potential solutions of problems such as medical inflation and inadequate access. Both sides hold on to much-cherished ���facts��� that are really highly debatable propositions, or even clearly demonstrable falsehoods. Many conservatives, for example, cling to the notion that American healthcare, for all its flaws, still has the virtue of being an overwhelmingly private, marketdriven system with some government intervention on the margins. The truth is that American healthcare is already a complex mixture of public and private institutions in which taxpayers fund fully half the total bill (through Medicare, Medicaid, and other programs) and in which government bureaucrats already make many significant decisions about the practice of medicine and the structure of healthcare markets. Many liberals cling to the notion that American healthcare, despite consuming vastly more resources than European or Asian countries expend on healthcare, has worse outcomes. The first part of that proposition, relatively high U.S. spending, is true but exaggerated. Cost is denominated in more than dollars. While American patients, insurers and governments pay more to receive more timely service from hospitals or doctors, in other countries the dollar costs are lower but other costs ��� the time and suffering associated with longer waiting periods ��� are higher. The second part of the proposition, that the outcomes of the U.S. healthcare system are substandard, is simply false. It is true that the average European or Asian lives longer than the average American, but this isn���t due to differences in healthcare access or delivery. In an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development report, America���s average life expectancy was estimated at 75.3 years, ranking us 19th out of 29 countries. But when the data was adjusted for the rate of fatal injuries, such as car crashes and homicides, American life expectancy was 76.9 years ��� the longest in the developed world. We obviously have a long way to go to achieve a consensus about what���s really going on in healthcare, much less what to do about it. Obamacare won���t be the final answer. Investing significant time and money to JOHN HOOD, Contributing Writer. implement it would be foolish COMMENTS? editor@upandcominand counterproductive. gweekly.com 18 UCW JANUARY 2-8, 2013 JANUARY 13 ���POLAR BEAR RIDE Starting 10 a.m. Reg $35 per person including free admission to the Richard Petty Museum, a T-shirt and lunch. Preregister by phone or the day of the event at 9 a.m. at Cape Fear Harley-Davidson. Contact Jerry Aaron at 910-850-3298 or info@rpmuseum.com for more information about the event. JANUARY 19 ��� RELAY FOR LIFE CHILI COOK-OFF/ POKER RUN Visit www.capefearhd.com for more information. PATRIOT GUARD RIDERS The Patriot Guard Riders is a diverse group of patriots from every state that come together to honor fallen soldiers at funeral services across the country. Visit www.patriotguard.org for more information about the group. Pool Teams Appreciation Tournament January 5th - 7 p.m. Call for more information 4624 BRAGG BLVD. While others retreat, we are moving forward. Some publication���s numbers are falling behind. Your free community paper is moving forward. Readership of free community papers is now higher than paid daily papers, and continues to grow. Rather than being replaced by ���instant��� media, your local free community paper has become an important part of our neighborhood. Another sign we���re working for you. Free Papers Working For You WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM