Health Care

I am very interested in the current debate about health care, even though I am not a medical professional and I am very healthy.

One of the scariest exercises I ever performed was when my former employer told me that they were going to offer me a slight pay raise in order to drop my health insurance. They even said that they would be looking to eliminate health benefits in the future. I looked around the private sector for health insurance for myself and my healthy wife. The numbers were staggeringly in excess of what we were paying, dwarfing they pay raise that I was offered. Had my wife or I had a pre-existing condition, coverage would have been far more expensive and the condition would not have been covered.

As people debate health care reform, please consider the following:

1. Every elected official debating health care already has government health care. Keep that in mind when they are slamming it. Add to that every member of the military, their families, and many veterans enjoy government health care. Finally, another 40 million Americans have Medicare. If you think this is so terrible, just hint that you are considering thinking about proposing to study some minor cuts to these programs. If you are an elected official, you will be run out of town instantly.

2. Obama and most Democrats are proposing a public option. No matter how many times they repeat the word option, the members of the hollow shell of what was once the Republican party claim that you will be forced into it. This is a continuation of their failed strategy during the 2008 Presidential campaign. They refuse to criticize Obama's proposals on their merits, rather they merely claim that he is not telling the truth and has other, hidden intentions. Every time you hear someone, Democrat or Republican, criticize Obama's health care proposal, ask yourself if they are really just claiming he won't do what he says he will.

3. A lot of people are scared of the idea of government run health care. They feel that it will take over the health care industry. There are many examples of government competing with the private industry in sectors of the economy even larger than health care. For example, you have government co-existing with private industry in education, law enforcement, and even courier services. Think of the public option like the post office. If you don't like, go to UPS or FedEx. They might give you better service, if you live in a major city, but it will cost you a heck of a lot more than 44 cents to mail a letter.

4. If you think that private industry is so much more efficient than the government, 1. You haven't read the news in the last 6 months, and 2., You have never tried to get a health insurance company to pay a claim. I will see your "hundred dollar hammer" and raise you a $50 dollar band-aid.

5. Speaking of paying claims, private health care is fantastic, until they have to pay a claim. Keep in mind the inherent conflict of interest that will always be present in a for profit health insurance company. They have a duty to their shareholders to maximize profits that takes precedence over their obligations to their insured. The administrators of a public option would have a duty to the public, just like the VA, Medicare, or the insurance provided to government employees.

6. When objections are raised to the public option, consider on whose behalf the objection is being made. Are people against the public option because they claim it will be more expensive or less efficient hurting patients, or because it will be cheaper and more efficient, which would hurt insurance companies? Are they looking out for patients, or just trying to preserve the status quo on behalf of the insurance industry?

7. Whenever you hear that we currently have competition, ask yourself what competition you have? If you have a job, your choice is your employer sponsored health care plan, or nothing. If you don't have a job, your choices are similar to a traveler at an airport with no commercial airline service. There are many companies from whom you can charter a private jet, so there is competition. The question is, can you afford it? Like air service, the price of health care drops dramatically when there are efficiencies of scale. That is why insurance will always cost less when you are a member of a large company, or better yet, part of a public option.

8. Even if you have a great job with awesome insurance, consider the penalty to the economy that derives from so many uninsured people in the United States. One way or another, you are already paying for these people through inflated costs both directly and through your insurance. Furthermore, consider that over 60% of bankruptcies are linked to medical bills Finally, how many people are unable to quit their jobs and work for themselves for lack of affordable health care? Health care reform may well be the key to an explosion of entrepreneurship.

Again, I am not an expert in health care, but these principles seem incontrovertible. What are your thought?