The Botox Dilemma

Congress has now voted 67 times to repeal Obamacare, which, while pleasing to people with nothing better to do, is clearly going nowhere. Meanwhile, King v Burwell is scheduled for oral argument before the Supreme Court next week. This frivolous case could accomplish what Congress can’t – overthrowing the Affordable Care Act. King is the case with the ludicrous cast of plaintiffs that the Federal Court of Appeals in Virginia unanimously threw out last June. “You are asking us to kick millions of Americans off health insurance,” Judge Andre Davis asked incredulously, “just to save four people a few dollars?” But four Supreme Court justices apparently found that reasonable and agreed to hear the appeal. It will take only one vote more to overturn the law.

The U.S. has been spending far more on health care than any other country since way before Obamacare, and Americans are no healthier for it. One clue to this enigma might be a full-page ad in Saturday’s New York Times, which featured 16 of the “Top Doctors in the nation," whose specialties range from: CoolSculpting to Abdominoplasty, from Nose Reshaping to Buttock Augmentation.

I’m not suggesting people shouldn’t have these procedures – in this short life, if we can feel better about ourselves, I say, go for it. But what does it say about our national health priorities when there is a full-Supreme-Court press to throw 6 million predominantly poor people off the health-care rolls, while 16 doctors are buying a $104,000 newspaper ad to tout their services?