Cost Shifting Without Conscience

When the chief executive of the United States, who professes to be the architect of landmark health care reform,  without significant expression of remorse, abandons his support for clean air because it would be detrimental to industry in this time of worldwide financial stress, we see a unique cost shift.  Manufacturers may save the few dollars they spend on ceasing to pollute the air that seniors, infants, children and working people breathe , but no one speaks about the costs that are shifted to our citizens, costs associated with ill health and suffering. Unclean air is costly.  It makes people sick, filling our emergency rooms, doctors' offices and hospital beds, raising our health care costs.** Sick workers are less productive, raising the cost of production and making American labor less productive and less of a challenger in the world marketplace. Dirty, ozone-rich air destroys buildings and our infrastructure (in addition to lungs) but these costs are omitted from the President's count of national cost and benefit.

The pennies that each manufacturer saves is negligible compared to the health care costs, human suffering, sickness, lost days from work, decreased productivity and infrastructure destruction that filthy ozone-rich air creates.

It makes one wonder what the President of the United States really stands for?  Is he really concerned about the health and well being of the men, women and children who are citizens of this country, or is his focus an ill-advised cost shift that might buy him some short-term  political advantage?  Is this cost-shift from industry -to just plain folks-  a matter of politics without regard to conscience?

New link added 9/6/2011
**New link added 9/7/2011

Executive Authority - An Exquisite Tool for Health System Reform

In light of Congressional leadership mismanagement of proposals for health reform, the burden of setting healthcare "right" will move to President Obama. Perhaps his advisors should be thinking about those features of serious health system  reform which could be implemented under the the President's executive powers (could Republicans deny such authority with straight faces?). For instance, how could executive powers support   education in the sciences, including graduate and postgraduate training in the various medical skills our health care system will need as our population grows and ages?  How could federal responsibility for veterans' and public health services evolve into a model system for delivering health services?  How should federal support for Medicaid be administered to achieve significant societal good? How should we structure our priorities and ethical principles?

The President is not without tools.