When erstwhile administration ally Supreme Court Justice Ruth
Bader Ginsburg describes the president's signature initiative as needing either
"a wrecking operation … or a salvage job" by the Court, and Justice
Antonin Scalia ventures that merely having to read the health reform law would
violate the Constitutional ban on "cruel and unusual punishment,"
Obamacare seems poised to perish.
While commentator Jonah Goldberg rightly argues for a
conservative, originalist respect by the Court for the Constitution and
Congress, the landmark case should also pave the way for a more conservative,
measured approach by Congress.
Congress should refocus on carefully and systematically enacting
pragmatic and popular solutions. Ramp up competition and tamp down costs by
allowing consumers to purchase insurance beyond state borders, as with car
insurance. Provide fiscally sustainable safety nets for the poor and high-risk
pools for patients caught in financially crippling health crises. Focus on
cutting rampant fraud and waste in Medicare while providing reasonable
reimbursement rates to enable physicians to treat Medicare patients.
A systematic, pragmatic approach to health care reform and
patient access also means stanching the hemorrhage of physicians from medicine,
by enacting reasonable malpractice reform and protecting the conscience rights
of physicians who follow the life-affirming principles of the Hippocratic oath.
The Jacobinic health care revolution based on radical ideology
and rammed through Congress with backroom deals, deceptive accounting schemes
and kickbacks has failed. Now Congress should democratically enact popular,
prudent and pragmatic health care reform.
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