On Tuesday, Barak Obama released his plan to provide health care for all Americans. It turns out to be similar to the plan of John Edwards. Both want to extend private insurance coverage to all citizens with the government helping to pay for the insurance of the poor.
They have both come up with feasible plans to pay for this. Let me say, I like both men and think either would make a much better president than the one we currently have. But there is a serious flaw in both of their healthcare programs.
Both men seem to think that the only thing wrong with our current healthcare system is that over 45 million people do not have insurance coverage. That is only one of the problems with our system.
The biggest problem with our system is that our health determinations are in the hands of for-profit insurance companies, rather than medical professionals. It is the insurance company that decides whether you get the treatment you need or not. And the more coverage they deny, the more money they make.
Many of the middle-class think they have good coverage, until a really serious illness strikes and they find themselves financially devastated because their "good coverage" doesn't cover the medical procedures that they need.
The only way to solve the serious problems of our healthcare system, is to create a government run single-payer system that guarantees all citizens health care coverage -- not insurance coverage.
We must eliminate the for-profit insurance companies from our system. Just doing this one thing would drastically reduce the costs of the system and at the same time increase the health care that could be given.
We must also put health care decisions back into the hands of medical professionals. It is a serious mistake to let insurance executives make our medical decisions.
I totally agree with you here. Insurance companies are a big part of the problem. They have driven up costs to drive up their own profits.
ReplyDeleteThe issue is not that people lack insurance - the issue is that people are not getting healthcare! This is a healthcare problem, not an insurance problem.
I wrote an article awhile back that offers an alternative plan:
Universal Healthcare: You're soaking in it
I'd be interested to hear what you think of it.
I don't think single-payer will happen until the majority of physicians get behind it. Most physicians look at the idea of "single-payer" as "I will get reimbursed at Medicare rates for ALL of my patients". This represents a revenue reduction for many providers so why should they advocate a single-payer system?
ReplyDeleteWhosplayin-
ReplyDeleteSorry it took me so long to reply, but I wanted to read and think about your post first.
It's an excellent article, and I encourage all my readers to go read it.
In general I agree with it. The only real difference I have with it, is that I have less sympathy for the insurance companies and would dump them quicker than you propose. Maybe I'm just not as understanding as you.
Also, I was a little disappointed with you seeming to think the USSR was a good example of socialism. They really were one of the worst in that they did not respect the most important aspect of socialism -- the socialist intent (to put the common man in charge of his own life).
A much better example would be Sweden.
henry-
ReplyDeleteYou have a good point. The doctors are afraid of it because of what's happening in Medicare. I refer you to Whosplayin's excellent article above, where he says in part:
"So if I’m trying to sell you on the idea of single-payer healthcare, why on earth would I bring up Medicare and then tell you that it has resulted in many providers ceasing participation? I was hoping you would ask. Really I was. Medicare is viewed by the conservative Republican leadership as an "entitlement" that needs to be phased out. They’ll never say that on the campaign trail though. No way – the senior vote is way too important. Their grand plan is for Medicare to simply fail. This will prove their assertion that government programs do not work. They’ll just fail to fund it properly, and keep cutting payments until gradually it becomes so worthless that seniors would rather just pay for a private policy."
I urge you to read the whole article.
Thanks for the props on my article. I'll admit, I really don't have good knowledge of the old Soviet system. All I know is what I've heard from my friend who lived it. I do know that using the word "Socialist" when trying to propose a healthcare plan is simply poison.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the insurance companies, I have no sympathies for them, and could sleep easily at night if their CEOs and shareholders lost it all. However, there are a lot of unknowns in a system this big. I think a graduated phase-out is probably the only way to practically implement this and take care of the inevitable unintended consequences that may arise.