Stop Giving us False Choices in Health Care
I was recently sent the following CNN article at http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/08/17/potter.health.insurance/index.html.
I totally agree with that guy on CNN that the insurance companies are bad. But, as usual, that guy only gives us the false choice between the current system where the government spends 50 cents of every dollar spent in the health care system and a new system where the government will spend an even bigger chunk on health care. Where the insurance companies, along with the doctors, do their best to get government to legislate and regulate as much competition out of the health industry as possible, and in doing so drive the cost very high. I pointed out to people the other day that adjusting for inflation, it cost about $250 to have a baby in the 1950s but over $10,000 today http://www.oftwominds.com/blogjuly09/healthcare07-09.html. Once upon a time people could afford to have health care without insurance, and if they did have insurance they only had it for catastrophic events. Doctors and hospitals could afford to treat people that could not afford health care at a reduced or free cost, but now, because of all the money hospitals and private practice offices have to pay to comply with regulations. Even if the government regulations were perfect, which I doubt since they are written by politicians that don’t know anything about medicine, these companies still have to hire extra people (including lawyers) to fill out paper work, and make sure the company complies with the regulations. Not to mention the high initial cost to comply with regulations on doctors, hospitals and insurance companies, that make it incredibly hard for somebody to start a competing company.
Let us look at the system Obama was proposing. He wanted the public option. (Now he wants a co-op, which I believe will have the same effect.) Since the government has unlimited resources that it steals from us, it will be impossible for insurance companies to compete with it. Any companies that do survive will be premium companies that mostly service the families of politicians, just like the private (non-religious) schools that manage to compete with the public school systems.
This will also motivate doctors to find other work. It is already hard enough for doctors to deal with medicare and medicaid. They pay the lowest fees and they take the longest to pay. Many would go out of business if all of their patients had one of those two programs. What makes anybody think that this co-op will be any better?
One of the biggest things that will force insurance companies out of business is the pre-existing conditions part of this plan. I know it sounds horrible that you would deny somebody insurance if they have a disease already, but the point of insurance is that you have it in case you get sick, not only after you get sick. This will have two effects. First, like regulations in many states that require all insurance in that state to cover some conditions, it will drive up the premiums. Because you have to buy insurance in your own state, the states with more requirements will have the highest insurance. That is why it is very expensive to have insurance in New York compared to Wyoming. The second effect this requirement will have is that people will not get insurance until they get sick. This will send the insurance companies out of business left and right.
