This is an excerpt from a hacked DNC (Democratic National Committee) document dump … [My comments in bracketed blue italics.]

Healthcare Playbook: Issues and Structure for the 2016 Presidential Campaign by Jon R. Cohen, M.D.  

“However, the presumption that patients would become savvy consumers, shopping for lower price and better quality has not occurred in many markets. In contrast to what the policy experts and economists believed, patient engagement with the healthcare system when they have high deductible plans has been dismal and in some circumstances, their healthcare is actually getting worse.”

[Had commonsense prevailed, the academics and experts would have quickly realized that the great majority of consumers lack the ability to select advantageous telephone and cable plans, let alone medical plans that may have life-threatening consequences. Medicine is as much an art as it is a science – no matter what physician’s associations may claim – and that the majority of consumers are ill-educated in the science, economics, and other subjects required to make informed decisions about healthcare. Truth-be-told, physicians are chosen on the basis of location, insurance acceptance, and the recommendations of other physicians. And, hospitals are chosen by location (under emergency conditions) and the physicians who a licensed to practice at a facility.]

“In a recent poll, 33% of people say that they have put off medical treatment because of price, the highest in the 14 year history of the poll. Instead of embracing the consumer movement, many patients have decided to not spend the money to meet their deductible and have gone without needed healthcare. Patients’ with high deductible health plans (HDHPs) have reduced number of physician office visits, reduced number of prescriptions filled, and lower number of cancer screenings.”

[The idea that there is a “consumer movement” in healthcare is as bogus as saying that patients are able to successfully select their own care providers without any foreknowledge of their own medical conditions. You will notice that the pointy-headed progressive academics often confuse and conflate the purchase of healthcare insurance (as the march toward a single-payer system) rather than the purchase of actual healthcare. People die when they do not receive adequate healthcare as we have witnessed in that other government-run fiasco, the Veterans’ healthcare system.]

“In one group of patients with deductibles of over $ 1000, 44% avoided getting necessary care. When patients have engaged, the early data indicates that when they act as consumers, they are making decisions solely based on price as adequate quality data is unavailable. This can be a disastrous decision.”

[This is crazy talk. Are you telling me that a consumer should be given a table of procedures, with costs and general outcomes and then forced to choose adequate healthcare as if they were ordering from a Chinese restaurant? Let’s see, which should I choose: the CT Angiogram scan which costs $5000 (of which Medicare will allow $1456) and a surgical angiogram cost $2800 (of which Medicare will allow $1120) with $1000 physician charge (of which Medicare will allow $865)? Balderdash!]

“Over 50% of people have chosen the cheapest plan off the exchanges with little understanding of the tradeoff they are making relative to the limited network of caregivers and hospitals they have chosen.”

[How can people realistically decide on insurance coverage when those hundred-page exclusionary documents are filled with impenetrable language and change from year-to-year? And, as for those “exchanges,” many of them insolvent and heading for bankruptcy, what happens when one is forced by political choices that are preordained to use an unsound exchange?]

“When deciding on a provider, do we really want people choosing the “cheapest” provider without understanding the quality of the physician or the quality of their results? Would you want a heart surgeon that charges $1000 less than their competitors to perform your heart surgery without knowing how many patients have died while undergoing surgery under their care?”

[WHO THE HELL IS THIS “WE” and why are we allowing progressive academics who live in a nonexistent theoretical universe and corrupt politicians to make choices that may be life-threatening? If politicians were not corrupt, we would have larger insurance pools competing across artificial state boundaries and the co-pay for negotiated drugs would not see co-pays jump from $10 to $150 for the same generic crème (Clobetasol) overnight due to an FDA ruling.]

“Recognizing that patients will now control significant amounts of the healthcare dollars, the market is responding quickly to the consumer movement by providing alternative care venues for direct to consumer delivery of services including pharmacies and large retailers offering direct healthcare services for a variety of conditions.”

[This is the type of political rhetoric put out by the special interests as if the healthcare selection and delivery options were not preconditioned by choices made by out-of-touch academics and corrupt politicians. The idea that the government can manage a healthcare system by dicta is belied by the healthcare provided to Native Americans and America’s service members.]

“Being  able  to  make  informed  choices  based  on facts, not only defines freedom, it gives American citizens the unconstrained right to pursue life, liberty, and happiness as stated in the Declaration of Independence. 

It is not about belonging to any particular political party or about any particular person that holds any kind of government office or about any candidates that might  be running for an office. 

It goes far beyond the petty fighting and smearing that goes on among parties and candidates.  There is a much bigger story in play.

It is about the conditions and dynamics currently occurring in the United States that are
influencing its citizen‘s freedom to make logical choices. 

That is, choices that are going to determine what their everyday lives and futures are going to be like.

It is about a government run by a political establishment that is responsible for passing legislation regarding laws, regulations, trade, appropriations,  treaties,  and  so  on.

Americans have become upset and confused as to why their government has become so dysfunctional and why it refuses to serve the people.”

• Making Informed Choices
• Is Choice a Freedom
• How Choices are Manipulated and Restrict
• The Story of a Nation
• The First and Second Amendments to the Constitution
• Political Correctness
• The Media
• Education
• Jobs and Wages
• Poverty
• Redistribution of Wealth
• Free Enterprise
• Competition
• Trade
• The Food Supply
• Safety and Security Illegal Immigration Refugees Paternalism
• Crime
• Drugs
• The Grievance Industry
• Big Government
• Debt
• The Federal Reserve
• The Economy
• Taxes
• Health Care
• Presidential Elections The Establishment Ignorance
• Fed Up
• Conclusion

From an e-mail from the author after posting a comment on One Citizen Speaking …

“ I am giving away free copies at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/641907.  At this point I am more concerned about the message than making money, Maybe your readers will be interested.  Just have them enter the coupon code RS63J at checkout.”

Update per the author: Only electronic book copies are FREE, print copies can be obtained at a modest price, and the offer expires on December 31, 2016.