A Glimmer of Hope: Taking the Last Stand to Really Fix Healthcare
Health care costs too much and something must be done about it now. Let’s all at least agree on this. This time, opposing health care reform doesn’t make you a patriotic small-government conservative; it just makes you a fool. It is in the interest of all of us to support radical reforms in health care. These reforms have the potential to lower our insurance premiums, accelerate the development of new technologies and drugs that improve our health and the treatment of our diseases, and provide better access to good health care for all Americans. The sugar on top? You’ll never hear the phrase “Public Option” again.
At present, we are in the middle of an unprecedented financial crisis. Our outstanding public debt, currently accelerating past $10 trillion, doesn’t even begin to compare to our unfunded liabilities to the entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare. Nevertheless, in 2008 we spent about $2.4 trillion (about 16% of our Gross Domestic Product) on healthcare. Therefore, when the President and Congress are talking about destroying one-sixth of our economy with a single act, some attention is required.
Before moving onto the issues and the facts that led this author to his humble suggestion for reform, let’s make one more thing quite clear: everything you have heard during this debate about the efficiency of government programs is a lie. We are told that Medicare and such are far more honest because there is almost no overhead to the programs (whereas the big, nasty insurance companies are robbing you blind!). This is, in fact, technically true; but what the public option proponents don’t want you to know is that this so-called “efficiency” is the product of a rigid, bureaucratic rule that pays hospitals and doctors far less than they need to recover the real costs of care.
The sad truth is that, while 33% of Americans receive their healthcare coverage from the government, spending on their behalf exceeds 53% of those $2.4 trillion! The 59% of us (which includes some of those also on government programs) who are covered privately account for only 42% of healthcare spending. Why aren’t people paying attention to these startling facts? Again, the answer is a sad truth: the story has been changed.
During the 2008 primary season, the debate raged between Senators Obama and Clinton over how they would achieve “healthcare reform.” During the general election campaign, Senator Obama continued to stress his plan for “healthcare reform.” Evidently, the Democratic Party no longer believes that “healthcare reform” is a worthwhile goal, because now the President and his loony liberal lackeys in Congress speak only of “health insurance reform.” This, more than anything else, demonstrates how the problem shifted from the high costs of healthcare with lackluster results to the liberal plan to destroy health insurance companies and institute a single-payer medical system. Not convinced by this conspiracy theory? Go watch some videos of healthcare town halls- not the videos with the crazy people screaming about the evils of socialism, but the videos of leftist Members of Congress who are wildly cheered at the mere suggestion of single-payer. These people don’t care about covering the uninsured; they just want to punish insurance providers. If you don’t believe that there are people in this country who honestly think that the system that has bankrupted every country it has touched while simultaneously destroying their medical results is the miracle we need, then I have some sad truths for you my friend.
For these reasons (both the legitimate problems of the healthcare industry and the partisan desires of some to destroy our insurance industry), it is clear that the future of healthcare in America is bleak; but you were promised a plan to fix it, and a plan you shall receive. First, though, let’s understand the real facts of American healthcare. Let’s begin with the issue of the uninsured. To create a foundation for his “health insurance reform,” the President makes frequent references to the fact that 47 million Americans are uninsured. Now, the number that I have (from the National Survey of America’s Families, an academic poll without any ideological biases) is 45-49 million, so I will grant him this number. But do not be deceived by this statistic. This is merely a cold number of people who do not have health insurance.
37% of “uninsured” people have an annual household income over $50,000, with a full 7.3 million earning over $84k a year but choosing not to purchase insurance. Another 9.1 million are only temporarily uninsured, as they move from job to job in this poor economy. A further twelve million are actually eligible for government programs like Medicare, Medicaid, S-CHIP, but do not use them! And 9.5 million are not citizens of this country (I am not speaking of illegal aliens, but of the people living legally in this country without being affected by a government health program). Add these all together, and we can understand that the real number of uninsured living in this country is between 7.1 and 11.1 million, not fifty million. So since only about 2.5% of people living in the U.S. are genuinely uninsured (instead of the 15% lie), why should our government be asking us to shoulder a trillion-dollar health insurance program?
Let’s make another thing clear: single-payer ultimately means government healthcare. Don’t be deceived by people pointing to the United Kingdom or France as examples of government health done right. These countries are currently mired in financial woes directly caused by their inefficient health systems (and their people experience significantly poorer results than Americans). Don’t be led astray by promoters of a Canadian-style system. The Canadian Supreme Court recently struck down the law prohibiting private health providers in Canada on the basis that single-payer directly makes healthcare worse. The court said that, “Single-payer without waiting lines is a contradiction in terms.” We all saw how horribly the government was treating our wounded soldiers at Walter Reed; do we want that standard of care for our parents or our children?
Finally, let’s clear up the myth that U.S. government insurance programs have been efficient and reduced cost. As I wrote earlier, the lower costs are the result of paying doctors and hospitals nowhere near what they need to actually perform a procedure. This engenders the cheating and waste that makes Medicare and Medicaid cost 35% MORE than private insurance! Also, according to a new study by PriceWaterhouse Coopers, any public option will cause the insurance premiums of people with private insurance to skyrocket! This is because hospitals will start charging their better- that is to say privately- insured patients more to make up the losses from treating those on the government option. So basically, majority of Americans, the government has decided to screw you in the name of covering seven million more people.
So now, after finding out that basically everything you’re hearing from the White House, Congress, and the media is a lie, you’re feeling a little depressed about our chances to fix health care. But have hope! There is a plan to reduce the waste in the industry and help all Americans get coverage! You can remember this brave, new plan with three simple words: taxes, cooperation, and common sense.
We should begin with a cut in the taxes of everyone who currently has private health insurance. What this means is making every penny you spend on healthcare tax-deductible. This will greatly lower costs for companies and individuals, especially those who are self-insured. This will encourage some of those who currently choose not to pay for insurance to do so.
Next, we need to force the government to stop fueling the cycle of waste, reducing the costs of healthcare for everyone while simultaneously making the system more efficient. If our existing government health programs reimbursed hospitals and doctors honestly and fairly, many needless operations would not occur, saving millions. State governments can then feel better about encouraging cooperation amongst the insurance providers. Already, states like Montana are bringing all the different providers to the same table to work out deals and cover more lives. This process works, and involves only private insurance.
Finally, the government and insurers can start using some common sense. For insurers, this means accepting the fact that all Americans deserve health insurance, regardless of what diseases they have. No one should be abandoned in a hospital bed just because he’s already there. For the government, this means cracking down on medical malpractice. Dramatically reducing the number of frivolous lawsuits will not only save the industry millions in trial costs, but it will also free doctors from the bondage of defensive medicine- which, similarly to the unfair reimbursement system of the government- has decreased quality while increasing costs. Take Texas as an example here, where a serious limitation on what qualifies as medical malpractice has costs way down and has created a surplus of doctors wishing to practice in the state.
Demand the truth from your lawmakers and leaders! Do not accept rhetoric when your life and livelihood are at risk! We need better tax policy, government cooperation with insurers (and vice versa), and some real common sense to lower the waste in healthcare that has created our present crisis. Above all, recognize that healthcare is a personal issue first, and that you owe it to yourself to push for the best system possible. So support a plan that will make healthcare better, not just make us feel better. After all, that’s not a cure, it’s just a hallucination.
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