The Administration’s Health Care program - an absence of feng shui in policy making

What a fantastic opportunity for those who see cabals and conspiracies behind every column on the Capitol. At the onset of the debates over health reform, many conservatives portrayed the administration program as a plan to ration health care for seniors. Seniors are the most expensive part of the population to maintain in good health. To the degree that the government can trim health care for this group, it can reduce the overall costs. This debate then moved on to the point where groups like the Tea Party came to believe there was a government plan to establish “Death Panels” that would have the final word on health care for our aging population.

And then along came the results of a committee established under the George W. Bush administration concluding that, according to their studies, breast cancer screening for women under the age of 40 did not merit the costs involved; such mammograms revealed relatively few cases of breast cancer for this group of women. In effect, mammograms should not be considered until the age of 50. Folks seeking evidence to support their beliefs in an active conspiracy claimed that this committee’s results proved the administration wished to trim or ration health care. The administration took such flak on this, Secretary Sibelius felt it necessary to announce the Obama administration would distance itself from the mammogram issue.

Talk about bad timing. In my opinion, this illustrates an absence of feng shui in policy making.