Health Care

The health care bill passed the house less than twenty four hours ago, and already I'm seeing a whole new wave of people who have lost their ability to think. Yes, government health care is a form of socialism, so what! So is Social Security, Medicare, public schools, libraries, the post office, our highway system, our sewer and water systems, you name it, the government is involved in all types of social programs for the common good of all its citizens. It is naive to think that our modern society can exist with out these programs. And it is naive to think that we as a nation can continue on our current path with regards to health care without government intervention.

Here's the bottom line. In the United States the total cost of health care for every man, woman and child is currently over $13,000.00 each per year. The rest of the modern industrialized world spends less than half of that amount on health care, and the savings are achieved through government run or regulated universal health care. In these countries, every one is covered, there are no medical bankruptcies, and people do not go to emergency rooms because there is no other care available to them. Yes, they sometimes have to wait for elective surgery, but so do we. Depending on the country and the circumstances, there may be some triage based upon your age and condition, but in this country we have the cruelest triage of all; You can get any surgery you want if you can pay for it. For all the money we spend, we are not any healthier for it, our infant mortality rates and our longevity lags well behind countries with universal health care. And, all of this wonderful health care we are so proud of is costing each us an extra six thousand dollars a year. Stop and think what that six thousand represents. That is money that could be spent on roads, schools, libraries, and things that would improve our individual lives.

Of course, most of us never see the thirteen thousand a year come out of our own wallets, and that is the big problem. Our employers, or the government picks up most of the tab. Even if we are self insured, the insurance Ponzi scheme hides the true cost of our health care until we are old or sick enough that they jack up our premiums and try to drive us out of the system, and let the government pay for our care, or in so many cases, we have to do without.

Here's what will happen if we don't take steps toward universal government run health care. Health care costs will continue to rise, Insurance premiums will rise in response. More and more people will drop their insurance, and more and more employers will drop employee coverage, or increase the employee share of the burden. As people and employers drop out of insurance coverage, the premium pool for the insurance companies will become smaller, and they will raise rates for the rest of us who are trying to hold on to our insurance. Sick people without insurance will crowd the hospital emergency rooms, lose there savings, jobs, and homes, or stick the government with more costs, which the taxpayers will bear. This will continue until the entire system collapses, and then where will the world's greatest health care system be? If you don't believe this, take a look at California, where rates for individuals who buy their on health insurance coverage have seen their rates increase by 29% in the last year as younger people and unemployed or underemployed people have dropped their insurance, leaving a smaller and sicker pool to pay the premiums.

There are really four types of people who are against government run health care, and three of the four have one thing in common. They all currently have health insurance coverage and they believe that any change to the system will adversely affect them. They are the people on medicare (a social program), people who are insured by their employers (don't bet on that continuing), and people who are wealthy enough to believe they can afford private insurance coverage no matter what happens (don't bet on that either). There's a forth group also, and it includes most of the people in the first three groups. These are the people that would rather spout some worn out cliche about socialism, or liberals, or President Obama, than stop and do some serious thinking.