Health Care

Do the people who are against health care reform ever think about how messed up it is now? They cry about socialism, but 1) is that necessarily bad? and 2) isn't what we have now kind of socialism anyway?

Let's address #2 first:

Anyone who has insurance pays a premium; if they're in a group plan, their employer pays a portion of the premium. If these hypothetical people never get sick, then they still have to pay premiums and don't get any benefits from it. On the other hand, some of us get sick, contract diseases, have genetic defects or chronic illnesses and make a lot of insurance claims. These folks often receive benefits far in excess of what they paid in premiums. part of the rationale behind insurance and how insurance companies make their money is that the healthy people subsize the unhealthy people. If everyone used up every cent of what they paid in, the insurance companies would never turn a profit.

Looked at from a certain angle, it already is socialism, the only difference being that some people cannot afford to pay insurance premiums, even in a group plan. I make a decent salary and I don't know if I could afford the premiums if I had to buy my own insurance outside of a group plan.

One of the proposals floating around is that everyone be required to have health insurance. At first glance this appears to be government coercian and interference in our personal freedoms, but as it stands now, everyone who owns a car is required to have car insurance, and you don't hear too much of an outcry about that.

Now to whether socialism is a bad thing:

If every person in the country had health insurance, the pool would then include the millions of young people who can afford insurance, but choose not to purchase it, gambling that they won't need it. Many of these people don't need insurance, but then the large amount of premiums being paid in by these folks would help subsidize the group who do make claims, possibly, even probably, lowering premiums for everyone.

There are several competing proposals inching their ways through Congress, hopefully we'll have something by the end of the year.

Some things I'd like to see:

• While I'm not opposed to insurers incentivizing people to go to their family doctor versus the emergency room or paying a higher perecntage for preventitive care or other ways to keep costs down, life-saving measures should be paid for...period. No more stories of people dying because insurance wouldn't pay for a transplant.
• One of the more insidious side affects of the recent economic downturn has been people losing their insurance due to job loss or cutbacks in hours. Sure, you can always go with a COBRA plan when changing jobs, but paying the higher COBRA premiums just when your income is reduced or eliminated doesn't really seem like a solution. Portability and a continuing coverage safety net are crucial.
• Speaking of job-related insurance, I don't imagine I'll ever be able to truly retire, since the way things are going I'll always need some kind of group insurance. How about group insurance rates being extended to retirees?

Frankly I believe that the opponents of health care reform are against the President rather than the ideas themselves, using pejorative terms like 'socialism', comparing Obama to Hitler and the b.s. about the mythical death panels do nothing to advance the debate and only demonize the opposition.

Does the right wing really think that there are no problems with our helath care system?