Two Doctors Operating. A Lawyer, A Bureaucrat, and An Insurance Agent Oversee the Procedure
In the category, be careful what you wish for, Ted Kennedy should be careful about pushing through Universal Health Care reform. It has been reported that this effort has taken on a sense of urgency because of Mr. Kennedy’s brain cancer. But what if we already had national health care?
Would Kennedy Receive Treatment?
Ted Kennedy will be 77 on Sunday. I wish him well. However in an opinion piece by Betsy McCaughey, she quotes Tom Daschle, who nearly became the architect of health care reform before his tax problems derailed his nomination.
Daschle says health-care reform “will not be pain free.” Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt.
In other words, sorry Ted, since any treatment is not likely to significantly prolong your life such that the expense would be justified, no treatment will be paid for. You will just have to pay it yourself or die. I guess the good news is that Senator Kennedy, like Senator Dascle, and most of the ruling class who pass these commandments down from Mount Capital Hill, are rich enough to pay for private treatment, if it is allowed by law. If not, they are rich enough to take a “vacation” to, say, India and while on vacation wander into a facility their for treatment by American trained Indian doctors.
But what about you and me? Oh dear, you better get your affairs in order.
Health Care Reform You Can Believe In
As long as the treatment received by a patient is paid for by someone other than the patient, the patient really doesn’t care what it costs. The liberal solution is to have the government take it over, and a bunch of bureaucrats will “act on your/our behalf” and make those decisions. The outcome of which is that you better stay healthy. Because if you don’t, you may not get treatment until you wait a very long time for your turn, or you may not get treated at all, if the bureaucrats rule the resultant quality of life is just not worth it.
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). 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 everyone 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.
More Liberty Under Fire
The government in proposing universal health care wants to mandate that everyone must have health care coverage. You will not have the liberty to choose. The government demands that you comply:
“comprehensive health care legislation should include a requirement that every American carry insurance.”
That’s the requirement, now comes the heavy hand of government:
“The ideas discussed include a proposal to penalize people who fail to comply with the “individual obligation” to have insurance.”
You must obey! The government has spoken!
Here’s a novel idea. How about implementing the above points first and fix the broken system that we have before we throw it out and install another new, massive, government program. After all we can always go to the government solution in the end, confident in the knowledge that these programs work extremely well and efficiently. (e.g., Fannie Mae {bankrupt}, Freddie Mac{bankrupt} , Social Security {bankrupt}, Medicare {bankrupt}, US Postal Service {$6 billion deficit, while CEO get $850,00 salary}).
What Would the Founding Fathers Say?
A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever. – John Adams
