Health Care Reform: Why We Need It!!! What Will Work!!!!

I will be the first to admit that there are problems with America’s health care system. Notwithstanding, it is the best in the world. Canadians flock to the United States to get health care not available in Canada. The leaders of foreign countries, good and bad, come to the United States for health care. Yasser Arafat, the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, would take an entire floor at the Ritz Carlton in Arlington, Virginia, when in town for treatment. I saw the scary Dude personally when staying there a number of years ago. And the client list at The Cleveland Clinic and the Mayo Clinic reads like a Who’s Who of the world’s elite from political leaders to celebrities to the generally well to do.

85% of Americans are covered by health insurance. 70% say they are happy with their health care plan. That is a pretty good satisfaction rate. The government bandies about the 45 million uninsured Americans figure. Approximately 10 – 15 million of those are illegal immigrants or foreigners here on visas. Another 10 million are those 30 and under who see no need for insurance and refuse to buy in favor of a big screen TV. That leaves a more realistic figure of 10 – 20 million who legitimately cannot get access to health insurance.

That is not an insignificant amount, but is certainly more manageable. At the top of the list of that group are the fifty-somethings that have lost their jobs and cannot afford or have been shut out of health care coverage because of age related health issues and pre-existing conditions. Second on the list are the working poor, who are employed at minimum or near minimum wages with no access to insurance through their employer. Both of these groups are increasing in number. Then there are those with permanent disabilities which prevent them from working and supporting their families. The cost of insurance to these folks, if available, is astronomical.

Then there is the “Wards of the State” class. These are folks who the government has pushed into permanent poverty through cradle to grave welfare programs, with no incentives or skills or life chances to get out of an admittedly deplorable existence. Many of these folks are the result of Great Society programs instituted with the best of intentions, but with disastrous end results.

Finally, our corporations are at a competitive disadvantage with foreign corporations as the United States is the only country that uses private business as the primary delivery system for health care coverage, a residual from the post WWII era when the only country in the world making anything was us, and the good times rolled. Now we don’t make so much!! On the other hand, we have the highest corporate tax rate in the world, which also puts us at a competitive disadvantage. I don’t see the Obama administration addressing that.

Obama is proposing a relatively straight forward program to address the issue. If you can’t get insurance through your employer, or on your own, you can purchase a plan being offered by the government at a reasonable cost, or heavily subsidized if you can’t afford it. Obama has promised the best of both worlds. If you have it, you can keep what you got. If you don’t, come to Uncle Sam who will provide it for you.

The problem is that if the government starts to compete with private insurers, it will drive the private insurers out of business. Obama is not hesitant to force the issue by threatening throw out tax deductibility of employer based health care plans to the employer, and make it taxable income to those who are receiving the benefit. What do you think is going to happen? The employer will end the benefit to employees, and the employees will then flock to the government plan. The end result will be that sooner rather than later, the last man standing will be the government insurance plan…translate, a single payer plan completely run by the government.

Over this past week, the Obama Administration did a dog and pony show with representatives from industry, labor, health care insurers and medical providers, who supposedly pledged to reduce the rate of increase in health care costs by a trillion dollars or so. We’ll see.

One thing I know for sure, the Canadian system doesn’t work, and by law it prevented side-by-side private systems. The Canadian Supreme Court recently attacked the system as people were dying waiting a year for rationed medical tests like MRI’s. The court said the government must allow for private insurance and private doctors. Private doctors? Heretofore under the Canadian system, doctors were criminally liable if they practiced outside of the Canadian government system. This was a centerpiece for Hillary Care that the government attempted to force down our throats back in the early 1990’s.

All that being said, my experience with my sick mother and father and Medicare was pretty good, which shows the government can do something that is not totally screwed up. I would hate to see the government ruin a good thing for the 85% of Americans that do have health care. Tom Daschle, who sits on Obama’s health care advisory board, makes it clear that we all have to accept less health care, especially the elderly who should come to terms with their illnesses and mortality. He also states that there is too much innovation in health care treatment. New breakthroughs only drive up costs.

Quick! Where do I sign up for that? In The Friday Morning Rant, I propose a system that should be workable, and keep the integrity of our current health care. Give it a read.