I operate under the standing assumption that pretty much anything that the government gets its hands on stands a far greater likelihood of being a giant cluster-fuck than it does of actually producing any long-lasting good. There are exceptions of course, but I really do think they are exceptions.
The current bit of legislation has all the earmarks of a train wreck waiting to happen. The house bill is over 1,000 pages long. This practically guarantees that none of the people who will eventually vote on it will have ever read the bill in its entirety. Without reading it, no one will have asked themselves what is really going to happen if this thing is passed and the so called reforms implemented.
As usual the media pundits have chosen up sides and have gone out looking for subsidiary talking heads that can come on their shows and spout-off about this or that particular point. Congress people are busily taking the pulses of their constituencies trying to figure out which position will cause them the least political damage and how to spin their support or opposition.
From my personal perspective, health care in America is a serious issue. It is ostensibly the most costly in the developed world without being the best in terms of outcomes based on the dollars spent. People without health insurance seek primary care through the most expensive venue available (the emergency room) or do without to their personal detriment. It is a huge, complex hydra of an issue that potentially could bankrupt the nation in the not-to-distant future if nothing is done. The fear-mongering on both sides of the issue is unrelenting and cacophonous and there seems to be an imperative to "just get something, anything" done, as to not do something will cause the initiative to be lost as it was when "Hillary Care" was the great reform hope.
Having lived and worked overseas, I have some familiarity with "nationalized" health care. Quite frankly, I don't see what all the fuss is about. When I lived in the UK, if I became ill with the sort of everyday stuff that is the meat and potatoes of primary care, I went to my village GP (general practitioner), waited in his waiting room with all the other patients, saw the doctor who examined me and provided care and went on my way. Not a shilling changed hands. If something more serious came along, I had private medical insurance (BUPA) that would allow me to go outside of the national health system, and chose whichever specialist I wanted. Yes, I know that not everyone could afford the supplemental private insurance and that this was "not fair." Neither is life... get over it. At least everyone in the UK could get quality care in a manner that was more cost effective than taking your child to the ER because he has an ear infection.
Unfortunately, I do not foresee a good outcome to whole health care issue in this country. The system is simply too large and complex, with too many self-interested parties to permit what, in my opinion, would be the best way to tackle the issue, which is to tear the whole thing down and build it from scratch. At some point, cobbled together solutions unravel and you just cannot keep patching them together again. Universal health care is a worthy goal, but we are almost certainly going to screw the pooch on this one folks.
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No question you are the right. The pooch is going to be screwed for sure. The question is whether it will at least get this 30 ton boulder of an issue moving in some direction somewhat resembling a solution. It won't be perfect, but maybe over the next 10 years it will become clear what's working and what's not. I also agree. We need to have a National Health Care system similar to our Police Department, FBI, Fire Department etc. A private sector health care program is fine too. I can't pay for it until I get a good enough job, but a national health care system is better than nothing.
ReplyDeleteWe have a national military that is charged with protecting America that we are spending in the neighborhood of $1 Trillion a year on. Cut that in half and save $500 billion a year for 10 years. We have $5 trillion. If we take 10 years to build 10 Hospitals that cost $10 billion each in all 50 states, we would have spent $5 trillion. Then we would have $10 billion a year per hospital to pay for the doctors.
I know we can't cut the military by that much, but think about how much tax dollars could also come from the fact that all government personnel and medicare would be using these hospitals.