PLEASE HELP ME! I have some very legitimate concerns, and I don’t know where to turn for help. The only solution I am hearing to our healthcare woes is “insurance coverage”. Coverage is NOT care. Insurance is not the answer, it is the PROBLEM‼ The current raging healthcare debate is completely missing some fundamental flaws in our healthcare system:
Based on insurance. Our system for the delivery of medical care is based on a risk-adjusted wager as to whether or not we will need access to healthcare. We will all need healthcare, at some point, with 100% certainty. This care is filtered through the profit-driven insurance companies, who dictate to the doctors how to practice medicine.
Employer-based. Why are businesses burdened with the responsibility to provide healthcare coverage to its employees? Why is this the primary source for health insurance? Businesses need to be removed from the healthcare equation. Talk about an instant economic stimulus, try allowing all businesses to eliminate one of its greatest expenses! Our access to healthcare should NOT be tied to our employment. Losing employment should not equal losing access to healthcare, nor should my employer’s choice of insurance dictate my medical care.
What system? We don’t have an actual healthcare system. Instead it is a hodge-podge of policies dictated by special interests, such as the insurance, pharmaceutical, and hospital industries. None of these special interests have the best interest of our health in mind, but are entirely profit-driven. They only care about our health if it also happens to be profitable for them.
Power taken from doctors. Doctors are not allowed to make all the decisions. Insurance companies dictate to the doctors how to practice medicine, by telling them what tests and procedures they will pay for, and what medicines to prescribe. Doctors are the trained professionals, and other profit-based interests need to be removed from their medical decision-making.
I have seen an insurance company send a letter to a 35 year-old man living in the hospital waiting for a heart transplant, telling him that he has reached his maximum lifetime limit, and that his coverage has ended…that’s before he even gets the expensive transplant. I have also seen a woman refuse life-saving surgery because she could not afford the 20% co-pay. I have seen that individuals will pay 3 to 6 times more for surgery. What would cost an un-insured person $18,000 for a routine emergency appendectomy, only cost the insurance company $3,000-6,000. Who is better equipped to pay for this? (Answer: the insurance company, not the person who cannot afford insurance).
There is certainly a place for insurance in healthcare, and a very important one. But it should not be the basis for basic medical care, nor should 47 million people be excluded. There are better ways to fund healthcare reform than “insurance coverage”. The best one I have found is Healthcare Vouchers, as recommended by Drs. Emanual and Fuchs. But I’m sure there are other solutions possible. So why is insurance coverage the ONLY solution being discussed?
There are so many voices clamoring to be heard, I don’t know where to take my concerns. I am hoping that you will be able to help me find a way to have my one little (but knowledgeable) voice heard.
I couldn't agree more. I have never heard of Healthcare Vouchers but would certainly be open to the idea.
ReplyDeleteI agree that taking health insurance out of the picture seems to be wise. They obviously do not have our best health in mind when they make decisions. And due to the high cost of individual insurance I would guess that many people who might be interested in starting their own businesses are scared away by this frightening aspect.
I believe that the government is wise to attempt some kind of reform. I believe this is current attempt is a baby step toward what one day may be true reform. Right now, without involving the insurance companies we would completely lose the battle. They are currently too strong with lobby groups and influence with politicians.
I only hope the change happens before me and my family truly need health care.
Elaine and I have been arguing this one back and forth for weeks or months. This morning as I was reading "The 5,000 Year Leap" by W. Cleon Skousen, I was inspired with some thoughts:
ReplyDeleteMany of those who are in favor of the government taking care of this problem are very humane and loving, very intelligent and very passionate about healthcare. I am sure that there must be many who are also very creative. Perhaps for some of you, it is your God-given mission to help those with unmet healthcare needs. People used to look to themselves to find the answers, and/or collaborate with others in the private sector. Find a way, without involving/expecting the government to take care of it! Find a way that empowers people, instead of making them weakened dependents of the Nanny State!
I am certainly not against people having healthcare, or even voluntarily donating some of my time/energy or money towards implementing a solution...but my current passion is trying to veer our country off the pathway towards total government control and subversion of human liberty. Read the Constitution! All powers not delegated to the US government are reserved to the States or to the People. Each of those powers are specifically enumerated in the Constitution; healthcare or caring for the needy is NOT one of them. The US Constitution, with its checks and balances on power, was designed to keep our government functioning properly and to protect us form those who would use power unethically. Throughout all history, there have been those who have wanted to exercise unrighteous dominion over others. Our Founding Fathers knew this with all their hearts because they did extensive and deep research into history, human nature, governments and governmental principles from the classics of all times; why do we think we know better than they did? Why are we naive enough to think that those who desire unrighteous dominion will not take advantage of the position we are placing our country in (or are we so naive, we don’t believe they exist!)? What happens tomorrow when those in power take another large chunk from taxpayers for that which YOU do not believe in or are vehemently opposed to.
The proper role of Government is to protect the people, NOT provide for their every need, and NOT to forcibly take from some to give to others. It is a proper role for Humans to provide for themselves, decide what their own priorities are, and decide if/what social causes they see fit to support. It is ethical, admirable, honorable, etc., for humans to help other humans. It is NOT ethical, admirable or honorable to demand that the government take what one person has earned by the sweat of his/her brow or brain (or otherwise been legally entrusted) and give it to another. We sell our liberties, strengths, future, and children’s futures for these so called entitlements. Not only does it weaken and stunt those who become dependents, but it also weakens and stunts the potential of those who would help (but now think it is the government’s responsibility).
Our government is currently bogged down and burdeend by operating outside of the law. We are not paying for the Unconstitutional programs our country is already running. We finance them by debt: deep debt. We are pretty much owned by China and other countries because we owe them so much. So, not only do we mortgage our liberties and our childrens futures to our own government, but we are also jeapardizing the future of our country.
BTW for those who think this is a democracy and that the majority may rightly vote healthcare in at will: This is not a democracy - democracy is mob rule (ex: in a democracy, a majority could vote that it was legal to rape, kill or steal from all women or all men, or children or blacks, or homosexuals, or unmarrieds, or cripples, or Jews, or Irish, or Christians, etc; and it would be done without redress.) We are actually a Consitutional Republic - rule by the people (directly or through representatives) but within the confines of the rule of overarching principles in the Constitution. This was set up to Protect the people from the government AND to Protect the minority from oppression. We disregard the Constitution at our own peril.
ReplyDeleteBack to being positive: use your great intelligence, strengths, talents, creativity, energy, time, etc., to solve the problems you see around you. Demand that your government stay within its legal bounds. That is what a strong and successful America is built on.
R.O.
R.O. said: "The US Constitution...was designed to...protect us form those who would use power unethically".
ReplyDeleteThe insurance companies are very powerful and quite unethical. Our access to medical care is accessed mostly through insurance. The only way to control the insurance industry is through governmental action.
Congress has already had to legislate healthcare policy. When insurance companies were dictating that women and newborns had to be discharged within a few hours of birth. This was dangerous medically (not the doctor's decision), and morally wrong. Congress passed a law mandating a minimum 24 hr hospital stay after child birth. As long as we continue to allow medical care to be subject to the free market system, the insurance industry will have to be reigned in by governmental regulation and legislation.