...the skinny on what I think about healthcare reform. Sooo, personally, I think Obama's got bigger fish to fry, like recovering the economy for one. But if we're gonna hash out healthcare reform, then yes, I agree with the liberals on one thing....healthcare costs are inflated and sky high. I just don't agree on the policies needed to improve healthcare for the masses. So, how can we improve healthcare in the US? I can tell you for absolute sure that a government controlled public option is not the answer. If you want to look into a crystal ball and predict the outcome of that one, just take a look at govn't run state medicaid...it's a total disaster. OR take a look at other countries who currently use socialized medicine. Also, I don't think people realize that it is flat out illegal for a hospital to turn someone away based on their ability to pay. I work in the inner city where half of these people have no insurance....they are never turned away and don't pay a dime. If someone needs urgent medical care, they get it and they get it immediately. If one hospital can't handle it, they transfer to another. This is not the case in countries who've adopted govn't supported healthcare...they'll be lucky if they can afford to keep up the sidewalks out in front of the building.
So for those of us happy with our current healthcare, the claim is that if we have private insurance, we can keep it. That sounds great in theory! The questions is, for how long? The answer, not long. The reason is because as soon as a government supported healthcare option exists, the company that you work for that is paying the majority of your healthcare costs is gonna say...wait a minute, they have this government option now and we would save a ton of money by not offering them private healthcare insurance. So they won't and they'll stop your private option. And then the private insurance companies won't be able to compete or survive and we'll all be relying on the govn't to pay our healthcare costs. When that happens, the availablity and quality of care will plummet.
Why? Because of money of course. See, some people fail to realize that the healthcare industry has to be profitable. Otherwise, who is going to pay for all of the technology and medical advancements....and who's going to pay all of the incredibly talented physicians that we all depend on to keep us healthy??? These people are not going to work for free!!! If you think the government can pay for this, think again. Just today I visited one of my accounts....a state supported medical facility. The building literally should be condemned, the driveway's full of pot holes and weeds, no money to even buy toilet paper. Scary. That's why claims will be denied and care will be cut off.
So it's not that I don't think that everyone should have good healthcare! In a perfect world, that would be ideal!! But it's never going to be perfect...and if we go to socialized medicine, how much money you make won't matter....it won't matter if you're rich or poor because we'll ALL have poor healthcare. Some of us saw the writing on the wall a long time ago and luckily millions of others have taken a true interest in their own healthcare, have done some homework and are saying no!! So, I'm feeling more confident that the majority of americans are totally against this healthcare plan...right and left both.
Of course I don't have the answers on how to reform healthcare and decrease costs, but I have a couple ideas. First, how about tort reform???? I can only imagine the financial consequences of all of the wasted resources spent on baseless claims against physicians. And then those claims that are won, are for astronomical amounts of money. It's sad that today physicians have to spend so much time practicing defensive medicine instead of truly doing what they love and just taking care of their patients.
Another idea is for free market insurance options. How about opening state lines up to insurance plan competition?? There are over a thousand different healthcare plans out there, but state to state, you'll be lucky if you have a dozen options. Here's a lesson in ECON 101...competition drives down prices. Or what about an increase in availability to pre-taxed healthcare accounts???
So, yes, I think healthcare absolutely needs to be affordable, but I also think we are all responsible to some degree. In an idealistic world, we'd all have free state of the art healthcare availability...but seriously, in reality, who's gonna pay for that??
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