Healthcare Must Get Done...and Here is How it Can

6.24.2009

Healthcare Must Get Done...and Here is How it Can

Health care in the United States is one of the most pressing issues facing Americans today. After all 46 million Americans don’t have it and they should. Why is this the case?
One word: cost. Private health insurance in this country is simply too costly for a large number of Americans. Many would rather go on a vacation annually than pay for something that by most estimates is extremely overpriced. Members of Congress understand this and a large number of Americans do as well. So what is the problem? Politics and Ideology.

When the founding fathers gathered in Philadelphia to write the Constitution, most envisioned a country free of political parties. Their rationale was two-fold: 1) they had just escaped Great Britain where political ideologies caused more harm than good and 2) the founding fathers believed that people would vote for individuals who displayed the highest quality of character, individuals that would make decisions that would be in the best interest of America and not politics. It is for that reason that the words “politics,” “party” and “convention” are left out of America’s founding document. In fact, while they tell us how to elect the president, they do not tell us how to nominate a President and because of such America has been “winging it” for centuries. Indeed while the founding fathers got many things right when they wrote the constitution, they were wrong in predicting that political parties would never exist.

Just as political parties were omnipresent when John Adams took office as this nation’s second President, so too are political parties omnipresent today and because of such health care reform is looking like it is going to be a lot harder to pass than President Obama initially thought. On the table right now are a plethora of proposals, proposals that in and of themselves have flaws. But before we look at public options or even universality lets go back to the main problem and take it from there: Cost. Cost is high because private, non-governmentally regulated insurance companies have for years tried to make profits first and foremost (of course they will…they are businesses) often times at the expense of the consumer. They have worked collectively together (ie. Blue Shield and Kaiser Permanente) to make sure no one is offering such ridiculously low rates that their profits are affected. Another reason health insurance has sky rocketed is because the cost of healthcare has skyrocketed. Doctors charge ridiculous fees and so do drug companies. Consequently, insurance companies must charge more for coverage because they will be paying more to these medical professionals for your care.

So by my estimate if we reduce the cost of health insurance more people will have health insurance. That DOES NOT mean that everyone will have health insurance and I am okay with that just as long as everyone has ACCESS to it. So how do we do that? In my opinion we need to adopt 3 keys concepts: 1) someone must run a health insurance firm that does not seek to make a profit (either governmentally run or a non profit), 2) a conscience effort must be made by Healthcare professionals to reduce costs, and 3) effective TORT reform must be past so that frivolous lawsuits are eliminated.

Why do I advocate a governmentally run or non-profit style healthcare option? Because unless we do health insurance companies will not reduce costs. After all, they will still be in the business of making profits and they will do so by providing minimal/ limited care. I envision this healthcare option having several different plans with different price levels. For instance one level would provide minimal care while another would provide coverage equivalent to that of a Member of Congress. Under this plan not everyone would receive the same coverage (because not everyone would pay the same amount for their coverage) however more people would receive SOME coverage and that is much better than our current system. And of course we need to reduce the cost of healthcare and prescription drugs. The quickest solution to cutting cost is putting medical records online. Not only does this make economic sense (saves paper costs), it is environmental and just more proficient. Finally, Members of Congress must make a conscience effort to reduce the number of ridiculous lawsuits filed against doctors. Doctors, in many cases, are just doing their job and people must expect that tragedies will occur in medical care. By reducing the number of lawsuits people can file against our nation’s doctors, their insurance premiums will go down which will ultimately result in lower prices for their patients.

So why isn’t my plan being adopted? Politics. If our founding fathers (the great men who once thought political parties would never take place in this country and instead they entrusted that leaders would do what is best for America) were leading this country, healthcare reform would have been past years ago. Instead this debate, which has failed to result in concrete changes has gone on for decades, leaving millions of Americans behind.

So tonight I hope everyone turns into ABC at 10PM ET to listen to what will surely be a riveting debate revolving around how healthcare reform can be accomplished. While GOP folks will try to make ABC News look they are putting on an infomercial for President Obama, they fail to take into consideration the journalistic prowess of Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer who will carefully critique everything the President says.

Will Politics then go away? No. Republicans will oppose it because it is not the best political thing to do. For that reason the Democrats should be political back at them and spend every cent of their political capital to use the “nuclear” option to make sure that Healthcare reform takes place, regardless of whether or not a single Republican votes for it.

Harsh? Yes. Necessary. You betcha.

Joe St. George