HealthCare Reform, The Medical Community, And You
Posted: Monday, October 05, 2009
by Chuck Patti
NCD Medical
There is a tremendous effort by the President and the Democratic Party to swiftly replace our current system of health care insurance with a government sponsored insurance program designed to bring health insurance coverage to all Americans. Of course, this sounds like a wonderful idea, however, after understanding the details outlined in the proposed legislation, many may want to reconsider their position.
The next issue that stands out is the promise of reforming health care thereby significantly reducing costs. If we look at Medicare and Medicaid as examples and understand the tremendous deficit that is growing due to poor management and excessive fraud, how could we even imagine we could increase the size and responsibility of a program and then believe it would be operated efficiently enough to reduce costs. These are wonderful dreams, but they are just dreams. TARP is operating with little control or knowledge of recipients use of funds, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has been unable to disperse funds or lower unemployment as projected and the Cash for Clunkers program was so grossly miscalculated that it ran out of funds in the first week and hasn't been able to issue reimbursement payments to auto dealers effectively. We were told these programs would work great and they had to be in place immediately.
But let's assume for one moment we can somehow accommodate the extra 47 million insured and that through some miracle we are able to control costs without reducing the quality or quantity of care. How do we get past the fact that the majority of Americans do not want or support the health care reform legislation being proposed? It appears our elected representatives don't really care what we want.
Yes, they were elected to represent us, but they represent themselves and their party's position first. Once they have accommodated them, then they may consider understanding our preferences. Of course, the exception to this position is at election time when every promise is to represent the people that elect them.
I know this sounds very conservative, and it's true I am more right than left, but as you read this try and disregard politics and consider the facts. I only touched on a few points of this issue due to time and space constraints, but I am interested in your views.
This Article has been viewed 188 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (5 total)We need to vote them out yesterday! Well written and well received piece. Marijo (pronounced Mary Jo)
I agree with Margo. Welcome to Searchwarp.Linda D
Great job thanks for helping to get the facts out to the masses. We will make them listen. There is a movement of understanding sweeping through and Washington had better watch out. We are no longer unedjucated sheep that need hurding but patriots that will be heard!!!
Thanks Chuck. You raise some good questions regarding costs and accommodation --- I believe that we should discuss those things. I do wonder, however, what do we do about the 45,000 Americans who die annually because of the lack of healthcare; what happens to the 47 million who are currently without healthcare; or what is the answer to the over 1 million people who will lose their homes this year because of mounting medical debt (and over 62% of them have healthcare).Additionally, according to practically every major poll taken, the majority of Americans do support some public healthcare option --- the WSJ/NBC poll: 73%, Kaiser Family Foundation: 58%, Qunnipiac: 62%, NYT/CBS News 65%. So the assertion that the majority Americans are opposed to that aspect of healthcare reform doesn't appear to be accurate.As far as delays and denial of coverage is concerned, that appears to be what's taking place right now, here in America --- pre-existing conditions, people dropped from coverage, losing jobs & therefore losing healthcare etc. If you want to make the argument that those realities would be worsened as result of what's being proposed, that's a conversation or debate that could be had.These are just some of my thoughts regarding healthcare --- as you said you were interested in our views, I wanted to share mine. It may not seem like it :), but I do appreciate you writing this Chuck and welcome to SearchWarp!
Edward - Thanks for your response. I don't disagree with some of the points you brought up but I would like to make some additional points.Of the 47 million uninsured a very small percentage are those that want coverage but can't afford it. Many are those who choose not to have it and the next largest group in that number are illegal immigrants. The current proposals will not include about 6% of the population insuring 94%. My guess is those that need the help and those that are dying may still be in the same situation, I hope not. Those that prefer to self insure will be forced to purchase insurance, pay a fine or go to jail. Not what I call America, land of the free.I agree most Americans want reform and many Americans favor the public option, however the polling I have seen indicates only 42% favor the legislation being proposed and 56% against. Polls can be misleading and I'm not sure how much we should trust them. The current NBC/NYT polled 17% more Democrats than Republicans, guess what kind of results they received?I have been trying to find someone to tell me how the public option can work, but no one has. If the government insurance offers premiums at 20% - 30% less than private providers, such as United Healthcare (the largest), who made 4% profit last year, how can they compete? UH may have fat and high executive compensation but they can't reduce their prices 20-30% and stay in business, therefore they go away. Where's the competition. If we cut Medicare/Medicaid by $500 billion dollars, force everyone to buy insurance or go to jail, increase the number of potential patients while already facing shortages of physicians and add a trillion dollars to the budget, how can this possibly work.Lastly, you are correct, there are now more than 15 million people without jobs. I seriously doubt the if we offer these people insurance that costs 20% less that they are now going to be able to afford it. ie $400/month instead of $500. We need to focus on getting people back to work, fixing health care, regulating the insurance industry, and settling are wars.Ed, I appreciate your views. The way to learn is to gather information, thank you for yours.
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.