Fedex Corporation

Barack Obama went off the teleprompter again yesterday.  He gave the analogy that a public health care option would be like the Post Office.  Yikes!  Since 2000 the cost of a first class stamp has risen from 33 cents to 44 cents, a 33% increase.  Is that health care you can believe in?

I believe the point he was trying to make is that there are private delivery options, which he named, UPS and FedEx, and they are doing just fine.  This is true, but remember how they came about.  It was because the postal service was such a dismal option.  It was a government monopoly that didn’t care about service because it didn’t have to.  When businesses got as fed up with that government option, they created a private one that has thrived.  What President Obama wants to do is take a working private option and create an inefficient government bureaucracy, chock-a-block with heavily unionized workers, and accountable to us through whom?  Our Congressional Representatives who cannot respond to a simple question other than by grabbing a poll tested, pre-packaged, talking points memo and sending it out.  They are tone deaf.  That is why they are so shocked at the angry crowds at their town hall meetings.

Real Reform

Here’s what we should really look at doing:

• Get the consumer of health care actively involved. How?  It’s being done today with high deductible health care plans coupled with a Health Savings Accounts.  The insurance company negotiates lower treatment costs and pays them only after a hefty deductible has been paid that year.  The patient is then in a position of shopping for the best health care and deciding on what treatments and tests, in conjunction with their doctor they will or will not have.  The Health Savings Account is where the patient can put funds, pre-tax, and then use those funds to pay the expenses not covered by the insurance.
• Tort Reforms.  Get the Lawyers out of the Examining Room. Too many doctors, in my opinion, are practicing defensive medicine.  They think of every possible test so that if something does not go perfectly with the treatment they won’t get sued for the test they didn’t perform.  Let’s follow the British System — fixed fees for the attorneys instead of a percentage of the settlement, and loser pays.  There are too many cases of people getting a $12 million settlement or judgment for something stupid (think of the woman at McDonalds who spilled coffee in her crotch and sued McDonalds because the coffee was too hot).  In these cases the lawyers typically ask for no money unless they get a settlement and when they do they get 1/3 ($4 million in this example). And now Arlen Specter has introduced a bill to allow these same tort lawyers to get a tax break for their expenses while they wait for their ship to come in.   It’s like buying a lottery ticket.  Who wouldn’t take a free lottery ticket on a jackpot of millions?  But who really pays for all these law suits and settlements?  That’s right you and me in insurance premiums we cannot afford now.
• Increased Insurance Competition. Right now most insurance is regulated by the states and in many cases policies available in one state are not available in others.  Let’s open up the competition.  If we have more insurance companies competing for our business, we are likely to get better and more creative policy choices.
• More Tailored Insurance Policies If my wife and I are beyond the point of having children, then let me buy a policy that does not cover childbearing, birth control, well baby care.  If I am young and starting out and I want those things, there are other coverages that pertain to older people that I may not want at this stage in my life.  Let’s allowed tailored policies that reflect my actual insurance needs.
• Immigration Control.  The same people who are pushing socialized medicine are, for the most part, the same people who favor open borders.  However, where do all the illegals go for the health care needs including having babies (new citizens)?  They go to the only health care provider they know, the local emergency room.  This is also probably the most expensive form of health care delivery and since they are illegal, they’re not paying for it, the rest of us are.  I think immigrants built this great country and almost each and every one of us can point to our forebears who came here as immigrants.  I am in favor of immigration now and in the future.  I believe these are hard working and basically good people.  BUT, they have to come here legally and follow the process.  If they are not here legally, they should be deported.
• Medicare Reform.  You probably want to sit down for this one, but shocking as it may seem this massive government programs loses billions upon billions of dollars every year to fraud.  Who pays?  Right!  You and me.  In higher payroll taxes, and in higher health care costs as doctors and hospitals have to make up the shortfall somewhere else to stay in business.