OPINION

Socialism, Not Access to Care, Is Obama's Prize

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.

Each passing day is more incriminating for President Obama's Obamacare, as the news is like a relentless prosecutor amassing evidence against a serial killer.

Yet the more evidence that rolls in condemning the president's "signature achievement" -- wouldn't you love to have that albatross hung around your epitaph? -- the more entrenched Obama becomes, making clear that his heart is not with the American people or their needs but stubbornly fixated on self. His singular goal is not to provide "affordable health care" but to slay those who are trying to take his "baby" away from him, with the deranged obsession of Captain Ahab.

The big ruse Obama and his henchmen manufactured to sell this sham in the first place was the myth that 50 million Americans were uninsured. (I won't go into the details again to prove how that was a deliberate fabrication.) That was deceitful enough, but their real hat trick was to conflate insurance coverage with affordable and quality care, which are not necessarily the same.

Bloomberg View columnist Lanhee Chen homes in on this very point, in opining why the Obamacare alternatives Republicans have offered have been ignored. Chen writes: "The main reason is that much of the mainstream media, as well as Democrats who support the law, isn't all that concerned about the affordability of health care. Instead, they have bought into a flawed thesis: that the only way to measure the alternatives is by counting the number of people they would insure."

I think she is half-right. They aren't concerned about affordability of health care. But most haven't bought into the flawed thesis; they are knowingly trying to promote it, in order to distort the important metrics in assessing our health care system: quality of care, access, cost and choice. They know that insurance coverage resonates well with focus groups, so they have foisted it onto the discussion as the primary yardstick. Obama's real focus with Obamacare, of course, is on none of these things. Rather, he knows that Obamacare is the best vehicle to drive this nation toward socialized medicine, which is the first destination on the trip to socialism writ large.

If it were otherwise, there is no way Obama would stick by his destructive baby monster as the daily evidence mounts to incriminate every single aspect of it in devastating detail. He would mercifully destroy it in the crib. Speaking of which -- it's time for another Obamacare disaster update.

This is a representative sampling, in summary form, of the Obamacare news from the past few days:

The Wall Street Journal reports that insurers are facing pressure from regulators and lawmakers about Obamacare plans that offer limited choices of doctors and hospitals. Many of the top doctors aren't included. This goes to access, choice and quality of care, and it was wholly foreseeable.

The blog "Legal Insurrection" notes that "the reimbursement rates are so low for hospitals that even major research hospitals ... are refusing to participate in any of the state health exchange plans unless reimbursement rates are renegotiated."

Bloomberg reports that at least six states and counties from Maryland to Oregon are getting inmates coverage under Obamacare and its Medicaid expansion. Swell -- more than $6.5 billion in annual state costs for treating prisoners will be shifted to the federal government.

The Hill reports that a National Small Business Association study found that a doubling of health care costs is preventing many companies from growing.

Columnist John Podhoretz details the "risible" counterattacks that desperate Obamacare supporters are making against those who have cited the Congressional Budget Office's finding that Obamacare will cause the equivalent of more than 2 million people losing their jobs.

Stateline, the daily news service of The Pew Charitable Trusts, alarmingly reports that medical identity theft has risen sharply and that Obamacare and legitimate concerns over its insecure website have "raised the stakes" and made this very serious matter even more of a concern.

The Washington Examiner reports, "There is strong new evidence to suggest the administration's claims (that more than 9 million Americans have signed up for coverage under Obamacare or Medicaid) are grossly exaggerated and deeply misleading." Great -- just another major issue on which the administration is deceiving the American people.

The Los Angeles Times reveals that even after we are beyond some of the Obamacare website glitches and long waits to get signed up, "some patients are now running into frustrating new roadblocks at the doctor's office. ... People are having trouble finding doctors at all, getting faulty information on which ones are covered and receiving little help from insurers swamped by new business." Though these problems were predicted, their severity is taking patients and doctors by surprise and frustrating all involved.

I found those items in five minutes without looking very hard. Is there any doubt in your mind that Obama is really after something other than his stated goals for Obamacare? If so, I respectfully suggest that you consider wiping the scales from your eyes.