I doubt Randy Neugebauer goes around kicking small children, but he has done nothing to help small children who need it, or their parents who cannot afford health care. And why should he? He is, after all, covered by a nifty little health care plan paid for by the taxpayer. These are the same guys who had no problem when it came to nationalizing banks on the backs of taxpayers. Socialism apparently is good when it helps the wealthy but health care reform is NOT socialism and is not a step toward socialism regardless of what conservative attack dogs say.
I'm not sure what health care reform will do but I do know that the system needs to be changed. As it now stands, some faceless bean counter makes life and death decisions. This may be an ideal arrangement for health benefit programs and for their investors, but it is not so good for the rest of us.
The Republicans may be down, but they are not out. We can expect an increase in the inflammatory and often specious claims made by the right about health care. John McCain promised that Republicans "will challenge [health care reform] every place we can." No doubt it will figure prominently in campaign rhetoric as the Republicans campaign to increase their power in the Congress.
Subsidizing health care has been around since Theodore Roosevelt's Administration. And while it remains to be seen how much good health care reform can do, it is better than doing nothing.
Roughly 25 million people in the United States are underinsured. Underinsured and uninsured people do not receive adequate care. Do not take comfort in the myth that the uninsured have access to adequate care because in the United States emergency rooms have an open-door policy. Who do you think absorbs the cost of that care? You, the comfortably insured pick up the tab through higher premiums and increased hospital costs. It's actually in your best interest to have the uninsured covered. Moreover, it costs more to treat advance disease than it cost to treat an illness in its early stages.
Health care reform will not impose rationing because insurance companies already ration care. This is particularly true when it comes to pre-existing conditions including congenital problems. Health care companies can, and have, denied coverage for people who need life saving procedures.
I have no idea where the idea sprung that health care will result in death panels. Have you, as I have, already discussed with your physician advance care planning? You don't have to and the reform bill does not demand that you do so. But somehow this common sense approach to end stage disease has been transformed by the rabid right wing into a death panel.
Health care reform will not cover undocumented immigrants. In fact, if you read the bill, or even parts of the bill, you will discover that it specifically stipulates that those who are in this country unlawfully may not receives subsidies to purchase health care coverage.
Finally, and perhaps most important to some, health care reform does not ban private individual insurance. If you are happy paying ever increasing premiums, you are free to continue to do so.
Although we don't know how much this will cost, we do know that the cost of early care will reduce the billions spent when people become seriously ill, assuming they have access to care in the first place.
Health care reform is not socialized medicine, which worked well in the UK until Margaret Thatcher declared war on the poor and began to eliminate funding. Conservatives like to trot out the "socialized medicine" scare, knowing that they are speaking to a public that doesn't understand the issue or doesn't actually care as long as they have theirs.
Oddly, those most vocal against health care reform claim that although they are happy with Medicare, they do not believe that the government can run a health care program. Makes one wonder if Medicare is managed by elves who live in magical trees. The reality is that Medicare cost have risen but more slowly than private insurance. If Medicare is as bankrupt as some would have us believe, maybe we should look at those administrations that used Medicare funds to fight wars in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Despite President George W. Bush's best efforts, the VA system remains an leader in quality and safety. Again, I suppose, at the behest of those magical elves in their magical trees.
We in the United States do not have the best health care system in the world if that care is not available to all. People get sick, some because they live unhealthy lifestyles, some because of genetic imperfections, and some because as we age, our bodies begin to wear down. Should health care, like luxury cars and high priced real estate, be available only to those who can pay the ever increasing price?
Insurance companies and for-profit health institutions are partly to blame for this mess. And if you don't think it can get worse, take a look at the UK as it dismantles its own National Health System. Medical costs are huge because drug companies, hospitals, their executives, insurance companies, and doctors are greedy. Health care reform cannot change that, but it might curb this greed.
As I said, if you like things the way they are you are free to pay increasing insurance premiums and escalating hospital cost. But should you find yourself unemployed and uninsured you might be thankful that someone thought to vote in favor of health care reform.
No comments:
Post a Comment