Criticism of health care reform is not all wrong, but it's largely attempting to squeeze controversy out of proposals in the wrong places. Media coverage has gone nuts, for instance, focusing on abortion. But the consideration that there are no provisions for cost controls, specifically in terms of WAGES for physicians and the COSTS of medical services is a valid concern because ultimately without such controls, consumers will have no way to keep up with the cost of medical services. We must all worry the the President's watered down version of what he promised* will further help only the very poor rather than the middle class, the sick, and the young who have been paying into the system until the system made it virtually impossible for them to participate. These are the people who want to have health insurance but simply can NO LONGER afford it.
The plan is not good. If it was less responsive to insurance company lobbying and medical service provider threats, it would have been simple. Get rid of the Federal civilian health benefits options and create a plan that our talkative senators would actually have to live with that would also be available as a public option for consumers. But of course, our agendized Senators aren't touching their own benefits. So the game is afoot. Republican Senators reaping the benefits of great insurance plans allowing them to receive great medical care rant about how everyone else should stand on their own two feet. Democrats, also benefiting from their cushy plans whine that in the spirit of noblesse oblige, shouldn't the little folks have something. And consumers are rightfully afraid of a bogged down piece of legislation that is trying to accommodate the big spenders, the lobbyists for health insurance and medical services providers.
Without a public option, or with this ridiculous new twist where States can opt out of the public option, consumers are going to be in a worse position than ever because the mandatory provisions for new kinds of coverage will have to be paid for and that will leave those of us already squeezed paying for more. I believe, but who knows, that those choosing the "public" option can NOT have other insurance coverage, eg through a spouse, but the direction of reform is bad, real bad because it addresses the very poor who typically have been supported through the middle class. Our health services crisis is in the middle class and here the legislation fails miserably. Unless middle class people have a "public option," things will get worse and sadly the blame is squarely on President Obama's shoulders. Like President Bush who responded to attacks by terrorists, many of whom were from his oil pal country of Saudi Arabia by attacking Iraq, President Obama is responding to the problem of a sore hand by putting bandaids on our feet. No wonder our economy is so bad and our medical care, on every measureable scale except for number of physicians per population, is among the worst in the industrialized world.
*We all remember the promise that we'd have access to the same great care that President Obama's family had as a result of being a Senator. You'll note that neither the Democrats or the Republicans ranting about costs have considered the billions spent on Federal civilian employee health care as a legitimate place to start by slashing those options until they were available to all and WE pay for that.
Medicare programming works, as does Medicaid, with the caveat that both programs are susceptible to fraud and "going broke" from too much membership. Already, insurers and medical care providers, who look at their bottom lines, balance out these customers with those who pay a lot more for health insurance through private insurers or employer sponsored insurance plans (which cost an arm and a leg as well.) Somewhere along the line we consumers failed to realize that it is about the bottom line in the health insurance industry and for its participants. So why support the public option?
Because we need to make the inroad, so that perhaps our largely uninsured twenty something population will be able to have something better than we have, access to affordable, quality health services.
