I am close to giving up on the health care debate. It seems rather simple to me, but the Washington pols make it complicated and, in turn, grandstand in an attempt to show the American public how important the are. The attempt is pathetic.
Whether reform is what we need or not seems unimportant for the power-hungry in Congress.
Those on the left say we need reform, but only in the model they want to foist upon us.
Those on the right talk about the lack of need for reform of any type and cite statistics about how most Americans are happy with their health care and how any reform would transmute into rampant socialism.
Neither approach is wise, nor does either show leadership when it should count.
We need some form of reform in this arena, no question, but it is not as if Americans (and even non-Americans alike) cannot now or will not in the future get proper health care. The issue really is who is going to pay for it all.
The first tact should be health insurance reform, not health care reform. America is the standard-bearer for nearly everything medical and people flock here from all over the globe. But if one wants the best, one should be paying for the best.
As for reform of health insurance, we need to return it to what it is…insurance. What we have in most cases now passing as health insurance is a bungled mess of pre-paid health care passing itself off as true insurance. Use it or lose it, they say.
A “public option” would simply make the whole process even more bungled and therefore more expensive. Health Savings Accounts are a step in the right direction, but they don’t go far enough. Money expires! Use it or lose it again. Ridiculous.
One thing the government can do, instead of trying to get all the dollars coming its way and redistribute them, with its large brokerage fee, is to open up insurance markets. Put an end to the de facto pre-packaged health care monopolies that exist in each state. Let people shop around for health insurance, don’t pigeonhole people into buying coverage that is not in their interests.
Doctors will still care for people. Hospitals will still care for the sick. Grandma will still be able to live out her life how she wishes.
Simply, insuring people properly is what needs to be done. Maybe that will be more expensive—short-term, long-term or both—but it will get money into the hands of people who can make that decision, not wasted upon politicos and bureaucrats that are in no position to make such decisions in the first place.
Folks who think that government taking a larger role in the nation’s health care will make it more expensive are probably right, but once again that is not the issue. We do have to pay for what gets done, but nobody—government in this instance—should not be taking money where either no work or substandard work is done.
It would be best to scrap the whole debate right now. The time spent on it is already a sunken cost.
Let’s start again by doing what is needed and what is most pragmatic by turning health insurance into insuring our health.
