Promises, Promises.

AuthorSingleton, Marilyn M.
PositionHEALTH BEAT

FOR THE NEXT YEAR or so, we will have to endure the hyperbole, apocalyptic predictions, fake outrage, half-truths, and frank lies of the political left. Some kind soul should take pity on us and pass out beans to put in our ears. Of course, we should expose ourselves to many opinions, but we have to be careful about propaganda.

Propaganda came to mind during a meeting I attended where well-heeled teenage girls sporting "AOC for Congress" t-shirts preached to the captive audience about how the government should pay for college tuition, books, and housing for everyone, while extolling the virtues of socialism. Had their parents heeded Vladimir Lenin's "Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted"? Then some adults with vapid smiles admonished us that we should believe the young ladies, not because they provided statistics or pros and cons of the value of college for everyone, but because they are young and our future. This brings out one propaganda tool: it is for the children.

Why would we willingly give up any of our freedoms and turn over our pocketbooks to the government because some nouveau socialists fed us propaganda?--because it works.

Look at the Social Security Act. No one would turn down the promise of financial security in old age or, as Pres. Franklin Roosevelt said, a safeguard "against the hazards and vicissitudes of life." I question if people think it is a good deal to pay more than 15% of your paycheck (that includes the employer's "contribution" and Medicare tax) to the government, thus taking your future savings out of your control. If you die young, you get nothing; your savings go, not to your children, but into the government's black hole.

Patients and physicians alike have been sucked in by false statements in the past. In promoting the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Pres. Barack Obama, on multiple occasions, assured us, "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor; if you like your health plan, you can keep your health plan." ObamaCare likely would not have gotten traction if he had said, "We don't know what the insurers will do after PPACA is passed, so good luck."

Electronic health records were part of the bumpy road to ObamaCare. The President promised that EHRs would "cut red tape, prevent medical mistakes, and help save billions of dollars each year." The unwary believed the puffery versus the facts. The promise:

EHRs are efficient. The reality...

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