Category: Commentary/Editorial || By
Is there anyone out there who's happy with their current health insurance? (Besides members of Congress and executives at health insurance companies, that is.)
I have a friend in her early 30s who's happily employed, generally healthy and has good credit. She can't get health insurance at any price on the free market.
She used to have fainting spells. Blue Shield, UPMC Health Plan, HealthAmerica and the rest huffed that was a "pre-existing condition" and turned her down flat.
So, please, spare me any complaints that a federal health insurance program would be run by "bureaucrats who would deny you coverage!"
Bureaucrats are already denying us coverage. They just work for UPMC Health Plan or HealthAmerica, not the federal government.
. . .
Last month, the Almanac reported on the Ninth Street Clinic, located in the former YWCA, Downtown.
Most of their patients are working people who can't get insurance from their employers, or who can't afford $600 or $700 per month for insurance on the open market, or have been denied coverage.
Consequently, when they get sick, all they can do is wait until their illnesses get so bad that they have to go to the emergency room.
Hospital emergency rooms are required to treat them, so they cover their expenses by increasing the prices they charge to everyone else, including Medicare and private insurance companies.
. . .
Guess who pays for that? Taxpayers and people with health insurance!
In other words, we're already paying for a de facto national health insurance program. It just doesn't have any accountability or checks and balances.
And guess what else? If many of the conditions being treated in emergency rooms had been treated months or years earlier in a doctor's office --- before they became chronic or life threatening --- the treatments wouldn't have cost so much.
Last year, as reported in the Almanac and elsewhere, the city of McKeesport was faced with an 83 percent increase in its health insurance premiums.
The city isn't unique --- every municipality, school district and private business that offers health insurance is bearing the costs of an out-of-control health care system that costs too much and does too little.
. . .
Some people who object to the federal government taking any role in health care say that the United States has "the best health care system in the world." To this I say: Bull.
Take a look at this story from The Economist: We pay a far higher percentage of our Gross Domestic Product for health care than people in any other civilized nation.
In exchange for paying all of this money, the United States is ranked 50th in life expectancy, ahead of Albania, Kuwait and Cuba.
The United States is ranked 44th in infant mortality, below Cuba, Portugal and Slovenia.
Do you think that health care would get worse or more expensive if the federal government ran it? I guess it could get worse ... but it's hard to see where private companies are doing such a great job when left to their own devices.
. . .
There are legitimate questions that people can ask about a national health insurance program. Such as: Who should be covered? How should we pay for it?
But those aren't the questions being discussed. Instead, a group of far-right loonies --- many of whom dislike the president because he's black, or because they think he's a Muslim (for the nth time, he's not) --- have hijacked the debate to rant about crazy topics.
Notes Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo:
The health care debate is now being driven by a perverse nonsense feedback loop in which the Palin/Limbaugh crowd says all sorts of completely insane lies, gets a lot of ... how shall we put it, impressionable people totally jacked up over a bunch of complete nonsense ...
I see no evidence that even close to a majority of Americans believe completely preposterous things like this. But journalists have no capacity to deal with this stuff.
In any sane civic discourse Sarah Palin's comments about 'death panels' would have permanently written her out of any public debate about anything. But even though very few people actually believe this stuff, the entire debate gets knocked off the rails by this sort of freak show which allows the organized interests who want to prevent reform to gain the upper hand.
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I actually am satisfied with my health insurance. I could wish that everyone had my plan, with my premiums. But of course a lot of people don’t. Some have no health insurance, and some people have either private or employer provided health insurance that under protects them.
Wasn’t there some conservative radio commentator that agreed to be water boarded, because he thought he would prove it wasn’t torture? Didn’t he immediately have it stopped and said that he thought he was about to drown?
Someone needs to ask Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Jim Quinn to go off their health care and try living like 47 million Americans. Then we might see some perspective.
I do think that health care/insurance reform is a sticky and difficult issue. There is some low hanging fruit, like addressing medical mistakes by copying the best practices of hospitals that have low rates of mistakes, and using technology to improve records. I suppose we need to limit some malpractice awards, although we also need to make sure at the same time that doctors that make more than one mistake move out of the area of direct patient care.
But physician salaries and the cost of prescription drugs are going to be tougher to limit, let alone reduce. It’s not easy to tell someone they are going to make less money, even if they are making a fortune now. Those are issues that I am happy to let other people deal with.
Hopefully we will start making some steps towards reform.
Ed Heath (URL) - August 11, 2009
And I like my coverage too…but I work for a gigantic corporation that pays a high percentage of my premiums. But, oh…by the way…I haven’t had a raise in the over two years I’ve worked there. Nothing, not a red cent. I’m Ok with it…I make a good salary and my benefits are great. But it can’t continue like this till I retire, because my 401k needs a good 30 years to get to where it needs to be (you remember that other crisis we are still in the middle of right). I think I’m not alone. Of course Rush, Sean, and the boys don’t have to worry about such things.
I disagree with you on the fairness rules in media Jason. The rise of one sided talk shows is directly related to the disappearance of the rule. It stifles debate and honest discourse…I can feel Jefferson and Madison shaking across the Piedmont.
Dan - August 11, 2009
Why is it that some people can’t see through this crap that Limbaugh, Hannity, etc. spew, and it’s just not health care, it’s anything that the far-right want’s to try and stop. Where are the real reporters that will just report the facts? And not just scream and shout there opinions.
PS
This web-site, and The Daily Show are all I need to get the facts
Bob - August 12, 2009
Bob: Mad Magazine is good, too.
Webmaster - August 12, 2009
The more the crazy people yell and scream, and the more often President Obama deals smoothly and calmly with the situation, the crazier these people look. I can easily see this going the way of the crazy people at McCain rallies.
The problem with mainstream media in all it’s forms is that they are beholden to corporate masters and wall street. While consolidation in other industries has no doubt provided value through efficiency and economies of scale, one has to question whether it has been good for civil discourse for the discourse to be controlled by 4 or 5 major corporations. In all due respect to this excellent blog and others, only people who have time and means to find them are reading them, making “online” news a pebble in a sea of boulders.
I was not stunned recently when in an online discussion of healthcare one person posted an 8 minute progaganda spot by CNBC that trashed the whole of the Massachusetts attempt to reform healthcare. A separate post was a 38 minute discourse between two leading economists from NPR...one conservative and the other liberal. It was thoughtful, respectful, and thought provoking. It takes individual intellectual rigor these days to get your mind past the bombast of 24 hour cable TV news and talk radio. Most of America either doesn’t have it or doesn’t care to.
Dan - August 12, 2009
I couldn’t agree with you more about the lunacy that is substituting for legitimate discourse these days, nor the need for ACTUAL reform of the healthcare “system” in this country.
My question is why does it seem more important to get it done fast instead of getting it right. Obviously this is a huge, massive undertaking and one that will likely affect generations of Americans whether it’s done correctly or not. Why does it need to be “done” in a matter of a few months before we get a chance to learn and understand what is being done, and just as critically, before our elected representatives and Senators have a chance to understand what they are being asked to implement?
Does anyone remember the $700 BILLION “stimulus” package that was enacted this year which was promptly followed by bunches of elected officials coming forth admitting that they hadn’t read the bill?
I’m not saying put the thing off for years, effectively killing it. How about coming up with a proposed bill, posting it online, printing it in newspapers and allowing the American people 3-6 months to learn & understand it prior to Congress voting on it? Then we can allow the proponents and opponents to publicly make their cases before finding out where the American people stand on it.
As it is now, there are currently 3 different versions of the legislation that have been passed by various House committees, and none in the Senate.
Anything worth doing is worth taking the time to do right.
Bulldog - August 13, 2009
Bulldog,
I understand you feeling about being cautious. In principle I agree. But I would like to point out that the skeletons of the three plans floating around congress now have been in the works since 1993. It’s congress, the executive branch, and the public that are arriving late to the party on health care reform. We just so happen to now have a president and a congress who are interested in making something happen. It’s hardly fresh and new policy. Of course people weren’t paying attention the past eight years because we were more interested in “spending money” (read borrowing) to forget about 9/11 and our crapper of an economy. Now that we are, we are saying…“hold on…wait…we’re not ready.” Truth is we weren’t paying attention in the first place.
Dan - August 13, 2009
I say forget about “skeletons” and let’s get to the details. As the saying goes, the devil is in the details. Let’s see them come up with a complete plan and then let’s debate the merits and pitfalls of the plan.
As for whether its “fresh and new” policy or stuff that’s been batted around since 1993 I couldn’t really care less. That isn’t relevant to discussion. Is it good policy or bad? That’s what we should be discussing.
Bulldog - August 13, 2009
An excellent opinion in today’s Washington Post about the toxicity of the discussion:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/13/AR2009081302897.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
Dan - August 14, 2009
What is the state of public housing these days? And you seriously want public medicine? The end result will likely be equivalent to a trip to the DMV but with life and death consequences.
The Obama plan is simply another wealth transfer scheme, from the middle class to our multi-national corporate overlords. The banking bailout, which enriched the likes of Goldman Sachs at the expense of the rest of us, is a good example. The Obamacare plan is yet another example of the Hegelian dialectic: the government creates a “crisis”, the people react, and the government offers a (preordained) solution. Don’t be fooled.
Rob - August 18, 2009
Ah, Hegel. Can you add some Ludwig von Mises next time?
No offense, Rob, but did you read any of what I wrote, or were you just offering a knee-jerk reaction?
Do you really think that “government” had created a “crisis”? The crisis is here. Health care is bankrupting employers, and employees can’t buy it at any price.
Webmaster - August 18, 2009
Jason,
No von Mises, but I’ll offer you a glass of KoolAid.
The precedent is there with the Wall Street bailout. By all accounts, that crisis was triggered by intentional pulling of liquidity by the Fed. We are now left with a $700B tab, while Goldman Sachs passes out billions in bonuses.
I do think that the “crisis” aspect of health care is definitely manufactured. The health care system has been broken for at least a decade now. The seeming need to ram through a bill in weeks should be cause for great suspicion.
To believe otherwise is naive. There is huge money at stake here.
Rob - August 18, 2009
Rob, let me ask you a simple yes or no question.
Do all human beings have a basic right to medical attention when they are sick or have a chronic illness?
Yes or no?
If yes, then what is to be gained by waiting for another month, year or decade … other than that sick people will get sicker?
If no, then what do you suggest we do with people who can’t afford health insurance?
Humor me, since I’m a naive Kool-Aid drinking fool who doesn’t understand the Austrian school of economics —- or at least can’t square it with the New Testament.
Webmaster - August 20, 2009
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