Health Insurance Reform is on the tip of the tongues of the media pundits now, and probably will be for some time to come even if Congress does pass some sort of health care reform bill. Let’s start with the proposition that about 50 million uninsured Americans and 14,000 people loosing their insurance every day in the wealthiest country in history is a moral disgrace. The reason is that medical expense is one of the leading causes of personal bankruptcy in the USA. We have no problem in thinking that people have the basic right to have their lives and property protected by police and fire departments. It’s curious that some people believe that medical care does not fall into a similar category… and the reality of the problem is that even people who can afford health insurance are denied health insurance because of pre-existing conditions.

Left as it is, the private-only insurance option will see fewer and fewer people covered as the cost of treatment continues to rise. The trend in insurance companies is that less of every dollar paid in premiums is being paid out in claims. Yes, the company executives want big bonuses and private jets. So, the way to increase profits is to take in as much as possible and pay out as little as possible. That isn’t a secret… and the easiest way that will happen in a climate of increasing treatment costs is to only insure people that are very unlikely to need any kind of medical care and eliminate any payments for elective treatments.

The scare tactics being promoted by the insurance and pharmaceutical industry… and remember that their only actual interest is in their profits… is that if there is universal health care coverage the quality of care will be reduced. You will have to stand in long lines and wait years to get medical care because it will have to be rationed. They say that the government should not stand between you and your doctor and that under the current system America has the best health care in the world. Canada and England are usually cited as the examples of how terrible “socialized medicine” can be.

The fact is that most of these claims are pure nonsense, unsupported by facts. Sure, they can roll out the individual case of the person in England or Canada who had to wait several years to get a medical procedure that they needed. That really is not terribly relevant because you can also roll out the cases of the person that died in the USA because they were denied insurance coverage. What is important is the overall quality of healthcare received by the population, not individual horror stories.

OK, so let’s start with the basic assumption that everyone should have some kind of medical coverage. For the 50 million plus 14,000 people a day without insurance, any insurance is better than none. Right now these people can’t get private insurance either because they cannot afford it or they it is denied to them. So, a public option that they can afford, even through subsidies, and in which they cannot be denied seems a pretty good deal to them.

Second, the idea that we have the best health care in the world just isn’t true. It may be true that we have the best health care technology in the world, but the average care received by our citizens is actually ranked fairly low despite the fact that we have the highest per capita health care expense in the world. If you think about that from a statistical point of view it means either that all health care costs in the USA are inflated and/or that very good care is being given to very few individuals. For example, the per capita health care cost in the USA is $6,714 compared to $3,678 in Canada, $3,449 in France, and $2,760 in the UK. Yet we are ranked below these countries in the health care that we provide to our citizens. In fact, the USA is ranked 37th in health care by the World Health Organization. That puts us below France, Italy, Japan, Norway, Greece, England, Israel, Canada, Australia, Costa Rica, Cyprus, and even Malta, just to name a few. So, the reality is that for the average guy on the street (would you believe Joe the Plumber) he actually ends up paying about twice as much in the United States as he would in France, but he receives significantly poorer care. If you follow the money you’ll discover that insurance companies, for-profit hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies have been raking in the profits over the years, but Joe the plumber didn’t see the expense because it was often paid by his employer.

The bills in Congress place no limits at all on an individual’s rights to see the doctor of their choice or get the treatment of their choice. All it really does is offer a public option to compete against the private insurance companies. This is likely to bring the cost of medical treatment down, eliminate excess profits, and provide free market like regulation to the insurance companies themselves.

Even so, the best option you have to make your own health into a better world is to take responsibility for your own health. You won’t get healthy eating donuts all the time. Take responsibility for getting the right food into your body and the right exercise. Look up viable alternative treatments for expensive medical approaches. Become your own best resource for medical information and you simply will not need to visit the doctor all that often.

Please share with your friends

Hide Sites