More insight from Richard Reece:
The question reminds one of Clemenceau’s famous statement, “War is too important to be left to generals.” I, for one, don’t equate foreign wars with health care. Nevertheless, the reasoning goes like this. The issues of ware and disease are too big for generals or doctors to grasp or control. Health care may be even more important. It takes 16% of the GNP versus 3.5% for the military, and the casualties, estimated by the Institute of Medicine, are 100,000 unnecessary annual deaths in hospitals, exceeding by far Iraq’s combat deaths, approaching 4,000 over a five year period.
Let me state upfront I don’t agree with the analogy of generals, doctors, and war. My sympathies are with the doctors. Doctors may be fighting a war against disease, but federal rules and regulations unnecessarily and often unfairly hamstring them.
