Health Care - Again

By Ed

Alright, let's get to the heart of the issue here. Instead of each of us beating each other over the head about how wrong the other is, let's try focusing on the common ground.

The goal is to try to enable affordable access to health care for everyone. The challenge is that health care doesn't just fall from the sky or grow wild in the back yard. It's a service that requires labor, resources and time. It requires someone to work. I'm going to assume we're both opposed to slavery, so that's out. Forcing someone to work for less than they believe it's worth is also out. (That's just modified slavery). So, if it's going to be done, there must be another way to go.

The government has proven time and time again that putting them in charge of huge piles of money is a horrible, horrible idea. Let's think of something else. All of the proposals on the table at the moment are just round about ways of forcibly taking money from one group and giving it to another.

I'm not opposed to healthy, happy people. I've nothing against the working poor. I am the working poor. Contrary to reports, I don't feel like my ranks are swelling (I actually lost a few pounds this year.) What I'm opposed to is watching the nation commit economic suicide.

Most of the issues aren't that hard to deal with. They can be addressed by opening up the markets for health care insurance and health care itself. There are currently so many restrictions in the name of consumer protection that choices are very limited and expensive. For example, I can't just buy a $50/month policy that only covers broken bones. States have mandated coverages that must include everything from a broken pinky to a sex change operation. A clinic that wanted to provide only first aid would be faced with so much exposure to liability, they wouldn't be able to afford band aids. Like I said, these types of issues are easy. A little common sense could fix most of them.

The real tough one is pre-existing conditions. The President has stated that any health care reform package must include the requirement that insurance companies cover everyone, regardless of pre-existing conditions. This is one point that his opponents have even agreed to. In fact, the vast majority of the public is on board with this one. Here's the problem. I walk into an insurance company with an ailment that requires $6,000 worth of medical treatment every month for the rest of my life. The company is required by law to sell me a policy for $500/month. How do you make the math work on that one? You don't. Private health insurance becomes a thing of the past. We will have government run health insurance, and the math wont work any better for the government than it did in the private sector.

The good news for pubic health insurance proponents is that it's probably inevitable. I believe my children's children will be sitting around the housing project one day, talking about how great it is that they don't have to pay for health insurance, as they enjoy a lump of government cheese. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the world fares when the economic engine known as the United States goes from neutral to a dead stop.

So how do you mandate the provision health care services regardless of pre-existing condition, limited co-pays and no limits on lifetime coverage and still protect the concept of individual freedom? How do you convince individuals to start and run companies that are required to sell dimes for 5 cents each? I have no idea. But, I'm listening.