We are swimming in hypocrisy, it seems, a philosophical inconsistency the severity of which, in my opinion, should not be underestimated. Individuals and organizations are increasingly taking the lead of the “state,” increasingly tolerant of simultaneous and philosophically opposing views, in essence, hypocrisy. For example, actions that governments proscribe but actively engage in are too numerous to list.
While the schizophrenic policies of governments and institutions do incredible damage to individuals and society, I think they also provide a clue into what the true and unspoken agendas are of the central planners. Corporate healthcare, for instance, has been forced into an intense damage-control mode thanks to the larger than expected pushback by governors and their rejection of the “exchanges” and Medicaid expansion. Allow me to explain.
The “business” community is dividing into two groups, those who are big fans of Obamacare (almost without exception those who financially profit from this legislation) and those for whom this legislation represents ruin. Corporate health care cronies all over the country, rather than keep quiet about the billions they stand to make from this legislation, are writing opinion pieces for the media, local and national, advertising the supposed benefits of the Unaffordable Care Act, partly to justify and hide their theft of the taxpayers, and partly to pressure those who continue to reject this invasion by the “state.” “Studies” have been commissioned from academics to show positive economic benefit and job creation from expanding Medicaid, for instance, having given no regard whatsoever to the simultaneous and equal or greater destruction of the economy and the loss of legitimate jobs resulting from this expansion of government. More and more legitimate business owners see this propaganda as a poorly crafted deception and this is dividing corporate health cronies from their former pals in civic and business organizations, leaving them increasingly isolated. The corporate hospitals have another problem, though.
Fearful of a separation within their ranks, the corporate hospital spokesmen are using support of this law as a rallying cry for the rural hospitals, the very hospitals these large corporate health groups have targeted for extinction with their hostile takeovers of rural physician practices and the resulting ruin of these small town facilities. Typically, a corporate hospital will buy the practices of small town physicians who rather than continue to support the local hospital now under intense pressure from their new employer, refer their patients to their employer’s hospital, leaving the hometown hospital devastated-and open to an inevitable hostile takeover bid by the invaders. And to think these corporate hospital goons accuse physicians who own their own facilities of unethical “self-referral!”
Most of the rural hospitals are fearful of the big city boys, but some are banding their rural hospitals together into groups to better withstand the invasion of the corporate raiders. Incredibly, the corporate hospitals are desperately trying to hold things together, playing the role of defender of the smaller hospitals! Even a temporary delay in the implementation of the Medicaid expansion and the exchanges will buy the rural hospitals some time, time the big boys thought they would never have, and time to re-evaluate their relationship to the state and national hospital organizations that have betrayed the rural facility’s interests. The corporate hospitals have serious issues on at least two fronts then, the potential secession of the rural hospital players from their fold and their abandonment by their former business pals. Their hypocrisy is catching up to them it seems.
I believe that the big hospitals underestimated the unpopularity of the Unaffordable Care Act, and certainly underestimated the extent to which the governors would reject this federal mandate, even if it meant rejecting federal money. Now that their money train is threatened, the corporate hospital’s shrill attacks on Obamacare’s adversaries illustrate more clearly than ever their self-serving and greedy mission.
Surprise, surprise. The central planners miscalculate once again. Who knows how this will turn out, but the public display of governor-bashing and ridiculous justifications of this law are more revealing than I think these corporate players would like to think. I think the hypocrisy and self-dealing nature of the corporate health players has been very instructive indeed.
G. Keith Smith, M.D.