ObamaCare is Not a 'Market-Friendly' System

Recently The Wall Street Journal published a letter I wrote in response to a September 25th opinion column, "The Democrats' Market-Friendly Health-Care Alternative." The letter is available online and you can read it here:

In breathtaking fashion, Drs. Emanuel and Berwick and Ms. Tanden spin the Affordable Care Act into a free-market solution to our health-care crisis. They neglect to mention that the law uses centrally planned cost controls to hold down spending. The Congressional Budget Office now estimates a $716 billion cut to the Medicare program over the next 10 years—most of these cuts to providers. This is not a free-market plan. This is a top-down, heavy-handed government-controlled plan.

Real market forces can only work when patients control their health-care spending and health-care decisions. The authors' op-ed would be absurd if the reader substituted the word "food" or "shelter" for "health care."

Americans, as consumers, have no problem obtaining the other necessities of life. It is arrogant and condescending for the political class to believe it is smarter than the American public when it comes to health care.

Roger Stark, MD, FACS