Over the next few weeks, we'll learn a lot about ourselves. I sure hope we like what we learn.
While they're on summer break, members of Congress will be at home talking about health care, Democrats trying to build support for reform, Republicans trying to kill it.
If ever there were a time for honest, cool-headed discussion of an issue, this is it. We won't get it, though. Republicans are going to tell any lie, use any scare tactic to keep things as they are. "Socialism." "Obamacare." "Government takeover." Former Lieutenant Governor Betsy McCaughey, our own Sarah Palin, was right on message when she insisted that Democrats will force the elderly to get suicide counseling.
These kinds of shenanigans helped kill the Clinton health-care initiative, when Americans set common sense and skepticism aside and let themselves be suckered. Between now and September, when the folks in Congress go back to Washington, we'll find out whether it'll happen again.
Republicans are insisting that the US health-care system is just fine. All it needs is a little tinkering around the edges. The plain fact is, there's lots wrong. Other developed countries provide health care for everyone - at substantially less cost than we do. And our health care is not at all the best.
Many Americans don't have health insurance because they can't afford it. Others can't get it because they have a history of illness. Others have insurance but lose it when they change jobs. Worse: Major health-insurance companies have been canceling insurance coverage when policyholders have a serious medical problem.
According to a report in the American Journal of Medicine, 29 percent of the bankruptcies in the US in 2007 were due to medical bills.
These are the problems the Obama administration is trying to address.
Health care reform is too important - and way too complex - for slogans and games. Honorable people can disagree about what health-care reform should look like, but we need far more than a few little tweaks.
What we really need is single-payer, universal health care. We won't get there in one fell swoop, but there's a lot to applaud in the plan that House Democrats seem ready to embrace. It includes a public health-insurance option - essential if we're going to try to lower costs. Also in the plan: Insurance companies won't be able to deny coverage or charge higher premiums based on pre-existing conditions. They'll have to accept all applicants, and workers can take their insurance with them when they change jobs. The plan eliminates co-pays for preventive care. It guarantees coverage for catastrophic illness. Premium increases over a specified amount would have to be approved by the federal government.
The plan also includes cost controls, but House Democrats will have to document their assurance that the plan is revenue neutral. If all we do is expand coverage without cutting the cost of health care, we'll find ourselves doing what some Republicans say we're about to do: threaten other benefits.
Conservative House Democrats, who have been vocal about the cost issue, seem on board, though. Now we'll see whether rational voices can overcome the Republican rhetoric. Americans need a better, less expensive health-care system, and they deserve one.
I loved the philosophy in a recent e-mail from the Ayn Rand Center: "There is no right to health care," it said. "You are free to see a doctor and pay him for his services - no one may forcibly prevent you from doing so. But you do not have a ‘right' to force the doctor to treat you without charge or to force others to pay for your treatment."
Well, there you have it. If you can afford it, you can get health care. Otherwise? Well, maybe it's time to start building poor houses. Privately owned, of course.
Comments for "URBAN JOURNAL: Seeking sanity on health care reform" (7)
City Newspaper is not responsible for the content of these comments. City Newspaper reserves the right to remove comments at their discretion.
Steve said on Aug. 04, 2009 at 11:09pm
A single-payer system is a mistake. Americans have been spoiled by our current health care system, and will never accept rationing and withholding of the latest/greatest treatments.
Obamacare will also cost this nation thousands of jobs. In my industry, medical device sales, we have already lost 20,000 medical sales jobs in anticipation of reform. You may follow our discussion regarding the impact of Obamacare on the medical sales and pharmaceutical sales industries at www.gorillamedicalsales.com/blog
Grant said on Aug. 05, 2009 at 9:03am
By "cool-headed discussion", the author means: accept as an unquestionable absolute the right of some people to another human being's time, talent, and/or wealth - and then work within that paradigm to achieve her goal.
How long will it last before it comes crashing down? Don't think about that. Evaluate the effect the mountains of government controls already in place have had? Out of bounds.
Yes, it is time to start building poor houses. We're going to need them - but not for the reason the author assumes.
Doug Hand said on Aug. 06, 2009 at 11:13am
Steve - We already have rationing based on insurance plans and personal financial situations. You know as well as I do that the current system is broken (it sounds like you live it every day with your work), but I agree that the current proposed plan is not the answer. As soon as "some one else" is paying, then "some one else" is going to decide what they do or do not pay for. It does not matter whether it is an insurance company or government , the patient and doctor will have to ask permission from the powers that be.
Grant - I noticed your first point also. It seems as though the "cool-headed discussion" is a bit one-sided. You must be one of those evil Republicans. I need to check my voter registration though because I disagree with the proposed plan, but last thing I knew I did not belong to a political party.
Ms. Towler - Quote: I loved the philosophy in a recent e-mail from the Ayn Rand Center: "There is no right to health care," it said. "You are free to see a doctor and pay him for his services - no one may forcibly prevent you from doing so. But you do not have a ‘right' to force the doctor to treat you without charge or to force others to pay for your treatment."
Well, there you have it. If you can afford it, you can get health care. Otherwise? Well, maybe it's time to start building poor houses. Privately owned, of course.
End quote.
So does that mean that you believe the opposite - e.g. I have the RIGHT to health care and the RIGHT to expect/force you, your staff, and City Newspaper readers to pay for my health care?
Mary Anna Towler said on Aug. 06, 2009 at 1:06pm
Doug,
Do I believe that you have the right to health care and that the rest of us should pay for it?
You betcha.
I also believe public education is a right, and I expect my neighbors, childless or not, to pay for it. The nation decided long ago that people have a right to public roads that contribute to sprawl. I don't like paying for them, but this is a democracy, and the people we've elected have decided I should pay for them, so I do. I complain, but I pay up.
Doug Hand said on Aug. 06, 2009 at 5:51pm
Ms. Towler:
Was the "You betcha."' said in your best Sarah Palin voice? :)
That is very kind for the rest of you to pay for my health care. You are a generous person. You are also very generous with the money of the other folks I asked to help me out. How much are you willing to pay? I have some rather risky behaviors that may lead to some significant medical expenses. Perhaps we can just start with me forwarding my co-pay bills for you to pay.
You have also taught me some new things today.
The nation decides what rights are? Humans do not have natural rights? So any elected government (or speaking in democracy terms: majority) in the world gets to determine the rights for the people that live in the country they govern? The people do not have to like it, they just need to submit.? Interesting.
I live in a democracy? I always thought we voted for representatives in a democratic republic. I thought democracy would have been voting directly for public roads or public schools. I must have missed the day in school when they discussed the results of those "long ago" votes.
Did you vote yes on a ballot to pay for the Bush administration to kill people in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc?
Did you vote yes to pay for the Obama administration to kill people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc?
Did you vote yes to pay for torture, rendition, Guantanamo, etc?
Did you vote yes to bail out the banks and Wall Street?
Did you vote yes to fund High Falls? Fast Ferry? Ren. Square?
I do not remember being given the opportunity to vote on such things. In the end it is all for the better anyhow because I am too much of a miserly curmudgeon to have agreed to help finance such things if I had been asked. You are indeed much more generous than I.
HSR0601 said on Aug. 07, 2009 at 4:19pm
-Scare tactics from verbal to physical-
1. 'Takeover and Rationing Cliche' lost ground, as this spoiled menu did the opposite for too long.
Like freedom of press, Public Well-being as a right, a nation took root in every free nation as a natural part of life.
The debate about it is most likely to puzzle people all around the free states. And with so many people uninsured
or underinsured, the humanitarian foreign aid ahead will confuse them, too.
2. Arbitrary Market Theory, Not Fair Market Theory, should not apply to a fundamental human right.
This last spring, due to the demand decrease, the peak fuel price came down below $40 per barrel, though, the
'Similar' insurance premiums keep on rising, accordingly the inaction could bankrupt family, business, and
government 'BEYOND this recession' , as all across the spectrum agree.
Basically, as demand diminish, the price tends to reflect it, nonetheless, the insurers that formed a cartel through
consolidation have replenished the loss by exercising inhumane malpractices involving denying, capping, rapid
premium increase and the like. And this runaway premium ended up in the collapse of middle
class ranging from finance to mental health, alongside the peak fuel price and fast-growing mortgage rate, as all of
us know.
They could be cited as an objective for anti-trust or anti-corruption.
3. The Deficit-sensitive groups have a distinctive common ground, they all have a Deficit-driven background out of
question. Therefore, I'd say they have nothing to say about deficit unless they come up with a legitimate plan.
4. These Deficit-sensitive and yet Deficit-driven allies struggle to ignore the positive effects involving massive job creation,
promising stem cell research, several times more economic effects of 'from bed to work' , relief on the mental
stress and keep-eating-habit caused by the deep-seated financial anxiety, which are the epicenter of a number of
different diseases, and beyond, as in the case of sustainable energy investments & the following savings.
5. To see the forest, get a big picture, it might be a way to go.
German firms on Monday 13 July launched a renewable energy project designed to provide European households
with electricity from the Sahara.
Utilities giants RWE and E.ON, electro-engineering group Siemens and Deutsche Bank are among the dozen
companies involved in the 400- billion-euro (552-billion US-Dollar) Desertec Industrial Initiative Dii.
Using high voltage direct current transmission lines, the energy could then be transferred to Europe where it could
supply 15 per cent of the continent's electricity needs.
HSR0601 said on Aug. 07, 2009 at 4:20pm
According to the scoring of CBO on the prevention & wellness program, all fitness centers around the world should close down immediately and all media have to end reporting health tips about prevention.
Immune System & Levee System :
All of the excellent health systems seem to have one thing in common, a expansive, systematic preventative program requiring immense investments. I think a prevention system works as a 'levee' built against flood by the government, similarly, it also needs non-profit investments from the government 'on a large scale'.
This might offer us the clue of why all of the free states have public insurance policy in place.
It won't be easy to draw some specific numbers on the economic effect of the 'levee' , but the flood measure lacking a stable 'levee' would be a house on sand, as the too high level of 'preventable' chronic diseases in America shows.
At present, about 75 percent of each health dollar goes to treating chronic conditions.
When tests reveal patients are at risk of a chronic disease, physicians have no benefit to help them make necessary changes to stay healthy. Rather, the system today is designed around treating patients once they become sick.
If current health care system could shift a small percentage of total spending into programs that help prevent people from getting sick in the first place, in combination with the KEY 'pay for OUTCOME' reimbursement reform based on IT SYSTEM, it would dramatically reduce the overall cost of care.
Thankfully, the health care reform bill currently before Congress makes several key investments in preventive care, and those pieces of the PUBLIC OPTION must be maintained.
"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.", said Benjamin Franklin , and 'Early Detection' goes beyond monetary value as we see the recent case.
As far as I'm concerned, the congress affected by the special interests has impeded the budget request for prevention program in Medicare & Medicaid. Let's imagine the costs and invaluable lives following the levee breach.
Time is ripe for CHANGE !
To see the forest, get a big picture, massive job creation, promising stem cell research, several times more economic effects of 'from bed to work' , relief on the mental stress and keep-eating-habit caused by deep-seated financial anxiety, which are the epicenter of a number of different diseases, and beyond lie ahead, to be sure.
Thank You !
Leave A Comment
Respond on Your Blog
Create an Account
or
Login
If you have a City Account you can not only post comments, but you can also respond to articles in your own City Blog. It's just another way to make your voice heard.