Healthcare Reform: A New Year’s Resolution
Universal health care became a bad joke during Clinton’s first term. It’s now back on the radar screen, the joke forgotten, the deadly seriousness of this issue locked at the top of many minds, and new support arriving from unexpected places.
According to an opinion piece by Ezra Klein in today’s LA Times:
In California, the heads of Kaiser Permanente — a historical “good cop” insurer amid the almost cartoonish villainy of the industry — have proposed a serious, albeit extraordinarily complicated, plan for achieving universal coverage in the Golden State. The details of the plan are unimportant; it’s the constructiveness of the proposal that matters.And joining them in calling for reform is Schwarzenegger, who recently seized on a report by the New America Foundation showing that cost-shifting caused by the uninsured population costs each family in the state the equivalent of $1,186 in annual premiums. His plans for reform will be announced at the State of the State address Jan. 9.
The work is not done, of course. There are arguments yet to be had, wars yet to be fought.
Insurers want to retain their ability to discriminate against the ill and the old; conservatives want individuals to assume more risk and expense in order to force wiser health decisions; liberals want the government to guarantee universality and utilize its massive market power to bargain prices down to levels approximating those paid by other developed countries.What’s important, though, is that for the first time since the early years of the Clinton administration, these arguments are being made, and employers, insurers, politicians and, most crucially, voters are making their way back to the table.
The realization that our illogical, mistaken healthcare system can’t go on forever has dawned, and so it will end. The question now is what replaces it.
Were it not for insurance, our family is one among many that would have to pay a couple thousand dollars a month, out of pocket, for life-sustaining medicines. We have been fortunate. Others have not. And that’s something — as Klein writes elsewhere in his commentary — that “the country’s conscience won’t countenance,” at least not forever and hopefully not for much longer.
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6 Responses to “Healthcare Reform: A New Year’s Resolution”
The solutions are available. The political will may be weak. Our pols have to decide to take huge amounts of money away from some groups and give it to others.
It is interesting how so many reasonable, thoughtful leaders are willing to let so many people suffer because of political donors.
Ever wonder what our society would be like if politicians were not influenced by donors?
The sad thing about the whole argument is that real, honest-to-goodness universal healthcare would be a benefit to the economy! I wrote a post on it some time back so I won’t bore you other than to say that it would make American manufacturers more competitive and make it more possible to become an entrepreneur.
Unfortunately, most of the so-called universal programs I have seen talked about here in the States involve employers purchasing insurance policies, and that will never work. Ever. Children don’t have employers. Neither do the self-employed and the unemployed. And that’s before you take into account that your employer paying the people who pay for your healthcare completely short-circuits anything that might have resembled “market forces.” I am not saying that a free market will “fix” healthcare, but what we’ve got is definitely broken.
i agree with uniersal healthcare, but on the state level. I will always oppose federal health insurance, we are just too many peoples in this country to make a federal policy beneficial. But on a state level this allows for the states to compete against eachother and better themselves thus bettering all of america. If americans have 50 different government insurance policies to choose from then it truely isnt a overtaking of the market.
always a student,
randal
The top down approach to health care will never work. Only until people get serious about their health and take responsibility for it will we make any progress.
Healthcare has to begin with proper choices of diet and an active lifestyle. There is no other way. Protect yourself and family the only way you can, with preventative, pro-active health. The more people who do this, the less the system will be burdened, and the crisis model we are under can at least deal with crises.
I’m starting a site to help people achieve this, and it costs nothing to be a part of. It is called The Natural Health Co-op.
As for New Year’s Resolutions, here is my free ebook that will show you how to achieve yours. (At least if it is a personal one – not intended for politcal issues)!
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Ok, Debra. What should I do to prevent a broken leg? Got herbs for that? Or has someone determined that a low-fat diet will prevent people from having accidents?
The fact of the matter is that illness can happen to anybody. Even if you eat right and work out and do all the lovely pro-active things. Tell parents whose child is in the hospital that Junior’s leukemia could have been prevented with good diet and exercise, and you are likely to need a doctor yourself.
Don’t get me wrong, personal responsibility is a Good Thing, but the point is that until we change the way we pay for healthcare, the system will be broken.
Universal healthcare (single payer) will never work in this country because the upper middle class will not sit in the same waiting room as welfare mothers. The rich will buy their way out of the system (see public schools), the middle class in the suburbs will organize themselves to obtain a reasonable level of benefits and the poor in the cities will get about the same level of care that they get now.
Also, without Tort Reform and liability limitations, it will be impossible for the US to have a government controlled healthcare and the last time I looked the lawyers always get what they want from the government.
Single payer will destroy millions of jobs and will make it impossible to manage the risks involved in providing healthcare. Under the current system, the Center for Medicaid/Medicare Services can change its reimbursement levels for certain proceudres and put hospitals and providers out of business.
If the feds are the only group that determines what the reimbursement rate, then the government is determining what types of healthcare will be provided. Single payer could make it impossible for healthcare providers to adopt new technolgy or keep providing the current level of service.
For many providers to survive, they will have to move into “cash and carry” medicine like lysix surgeron, dermatology, or cosmetic surgery that will not be party of single payer and leave the cancer treatment/orthopedic surgery/OB-GYN to the few crazy enough to do it.