Aug 16, 2009
Politics? Culture Wars? Where do you draw the line?
I had a great discussion with a good friend of mine tonight (and by “tonight” I mean at the bar just before it closed) about Obama’s healthcare plan and new Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor, etc. My friend claims to be a conservative, but I don’t believe him — he’s got too kind of a heart to be what passes for a conservative these days.
Anyway, our discussion got me thinking –
Politics and questions about who’s going to pay for it aside, the question I keep asking about our “healthcare” system is this:
Are the literally life and death decisions that get made in the “healthcare” process the kind of decisions that we as a society want to leave up to a cog in the wheel of a for-profit company? Can anyone seriously say with a straight face that they trust the motives and intentions of a profit-motivated private corporation more than those of a government employee who doesn’t have to give a second thought to how much money he or she (or their company) is going to make or lose on a given case?
I loved Thursday’s Daily Show when Jon went after Glen Beck on his huge swing about health care…
http://www.hulu.com/watch/89817/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-glenn-becks-operation#s-p1-sr-i1
I think the “passes for conservative these days” is a little rough. I consider myself to be conservative. Since 2000 I have voted Bush, Bush, Ron Paul; but I am certainly not without empathy.
We need to reform health care in some respect. The average HH income in FW is probably about 45k/yr (I haven’t checked, just estimating). So lets assume someone gets pneumonia. They are probably going to end up at least 5k$ in debt. Which is killer. And God forbid they get cancer because they might be entirely bankrupt.
But I just don’t think that this solution is the correct one. We need to bring COSTS associated with HC down. Not just simply pay for it, which might only encourage people/entities to take advantage of govt coffers.
Malpractice suits would be a good place to start. (The President refuses to take on trial atty’s to this end). And once you take malpractice costs into consideration, you could probably start bringing down some of the insurance premiums that doctors and hospitals are forced to pay. A doctor can’t make money like they used to because of their own insurance costs (which do get passed on to the consumer).
So, there do need to be some changes made. I just think that we should attack the disease (costs) and not the symptoms (paying). Because it is increasingly harder to be middle class in this country. You get hit from every direction, and HC is not a place anyone wants to get hit. Now, just wait until interest rates start to rise, the value of the dollar declines, energy costs twice it’s current costs, etc.
Perhaps there is inherently a problem with a government employee who doesn’t have to give a second thought to how much money the government would lose. Because we can’t continue to throw money around like it is without consequence. The consequences show up in our IRS bill, the grocery store bill, the vending machine bill, and virtually everywhere else.
Check it out, WH is looking into Non-Profit Co-Op Insurance.
Now that’s a uniquely American solution. Still think we need to fix the cost side though.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_sebelius_health_care
Apparently, while I was starting my new job, you have been writing again.
I am concerned about some of the aspects of a US National health bill but it’s clear to me that no private solution is going to fix the problem. I am deeply offended by the level of medical charges that are routinely racked up for routine illnesses. Doctors and hospitals are radically over treating people and the insurance industry doesn’t want to stop it; they want it to increase. (Headache? Get a CAT scan and pay $1000! No this is not a joke, it really happens all the time. Call it the $1000 headache. There were about 60 million CAT scans last year for 350 million people. Do the math)
I have always been a conservative but the lack of compassion shown by many in the conservative camp has shocked me.
[...] Cowtown Chronicles is writing again and has posted on the government healthcare bill. [...]