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EDITOR'S PAGE
A Dream Deferred
Rich Kirkner
Editor-in-Chief
“What happens to a dream
deferred?” Langston Hughes asks this in his classic poem,
“Harlem,” then paints vivid pictures in the brain of what really
happens in such a situation.
A dream deferred is how you can best describe Bill Clinton’s
eight
 years in Washington and health-care reform. A series
of political missteps and sexual dalliances have brought us a lot of talk and
little, if any, action.
Today, Congress still fidgets and fusses with crimping federal
health-care regulations around the edges, much like the sweet potato pie we
polished off a few weeks ago. Neither Congress nor the President have had the
political wherewithal to do anything about the filling. Your patients still
can’t sue their HMOs. Their HMOs can still keep you off their panels,
though, no matter what your state laws say. Your reimbursements for services
stagnate. If only your health insurance costs would do the same.
But the economy is
nothing but sunny skies. Sure, there are clouds out there, but no one in
Washington can remember the last rainy day. Why worry?
Our next president—yet to be
determined at this writing—won’t worry either. If he were to, he
couldn’t do anything about it anyway. The haggling over Florida’s
votes, a Congress that’s almost evenly split between the two parties and
the strengthening factions within each party will render Washington about as
mobile as snapper in soup over the next few years.
That would have its bright side.
Federal budget surpluses would pile up. And no matter who moves into the White
House, he’ll hopefully have the sense to know that Alan Greenspan is the
most important man in America.
What happens if those clouds gather, though? If the middle class
start losing their jobs and their employer-sponsored health insurance? Those
voices clamoring for nationalized, universal health insurance will get their
hearing again. We could find ourselves back where we were 8 years ago, only a
little smarter and a little more weary for the wear.
And we could find out what really
happens to a dream deferred.
* * *
For the past six years, Dr. Randy Brooks has given us advice on
how to live with managed care. Always insightful, often witty and a bass
fisherman to boot, Dr. Brooks delivered the goods monthly. He knows everything
about managed care and has graced these pages with his knowledge. This month
Dr. Brooks closes his run with “Managed Care Update,” but not his
involvement with our magazine. He’ll reappear from time to time and
continue to share his sharp wit and sharper wisdom with us. u
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© Review of Optometry OnLine
December
15, 2000 |
