Health care crisis as depicted by pirates.
By Jill Chapin
July 23, 2009
Healthcare reform really isn’t as complicated as we are led to believe, but that is exactly what Washington wants us to think. If they made it simple to understand, we might learn a thing or two that would erode support.
As it now reads, it is an unwieldy piece of legislation, so convoluted that no one has read the whole thing, or even half of it. So when the president says that those who like their health insurance can keep it, the devil in the details may not ensure that promise. And if our legislators haven’t read this unintelligible tome, they can’t ensure that promise either.
Benjamin Franklin once wrote a long, rambling letter to a friend. In closing, he apologized for it’s length, explaining that he didn’t have time to write a shorter one.
Putting every thought and idea on paper and then presenting it to the public in the form of thousands of pages is the lazy way to write. It takes time and thought to edit out the unclear, the redundant, the contradictions. The healthcare proposal we are asked to embrace is basically a rough draft, something that should never have been exposed for public comment with all of its flaws and lack of clarity and transparency.
Access and quality of our healthcare is not our problem. Cost is the issue, and the two enormous elephants in the room are the pharmaceuticals and the insurance companies. If we could simply rein in the cost of premiums and drugs, a huge part of our healthcare pains could be alleviated without having to implement the smoke and mirrors we are asked to accept as the only way out of this crisis.
But because pharmaceuticals and the insurance industry are in bed with Washington, this more streamlined path to reform most likely will never be taken.
The L.A. Times reported that the White House met with the president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. Likewise the president of America’s Health Insurance Plans also had the president’s ear. What did they say? What did they want? And most important of all, what did the president promise them?
There is a new proposal for having an independent panel of medical experts formulate a workable policy. Will either of the above be on this panel? Those who have the most to lose because they are raking in mountains of money get face time with the president. And the very last thing either wants is to rein in the cost of drugs and premiums.
Can there be diabolical reasons why Canada gets the same drugs as we do, but at significantly lower costs? Could there be a quid pro quo, where our government offers the pharmaceuticals guaranteed high prices here in the U.S. in exchange for Big Pharma generously supporting our elected officials?
And what about that new ad airing with Harry and Louise? Remember that infamous couple whom me met during the last healthcare reform attempt in the nineties? Back then they were adamantly opposed to it. This time around, however, they seem to have had a change of heart and now endorse the proposed health care overhaul. Drug companies paid for this ad. Why? What is in this bill that we haven’t yet discovered?
If our administration is so set on reducing drug costs, why have they not banned drug ads, with patients now telling their doctors what they want, even if they shouldn’t have it.
If Obama says he doesn’t want to be in the auto or banking industry, why then does he want to be in the insurance business? We definitely need more competition, but shouldn’t Washington instead be supporting private endeavors to compete?
Decades ago, congress voted for free healthcare for themselves and their families. Well, not exactly free. We pay for it. A good faith step would be for Washington to abolish this outrageous freebie. Maybe if they really do feel our pain they won’t feel like cozying up to those two big elephants who are crushing the rest of us.
Obama says doing nothing is not an option. While I don’t summarily disagree with that statement, that doesn’t mean we should just do anything.
The Hunger Site
July 24, 2009 at 1:46 pm
As much as it is trendy to blame insurance and pharmaceutical companies for the health care mess, they pale in comparison to the real culprits – Doctors and Lawyers. The AMA is a cartel, restricting the supply of doctors by limiting medical school qualifications, and limiting alternative medicine. And there will never be cost controls until we limit malpractice damage claims and lawsuits. Health care was Clinton’s Waterloo – Obama’s too?
July 23, 2009 at 7:37 pm
http://www.singlepayeraction.org/about.html
July 23, 2009 at 3:43 pm
Ms. Chapin makes a number of points in her article, not least of which is that many of our elected officials in Washington, including Dems, are essentially owned by Big Pharma and private health insurance interests.
Her other point, that healthcare insurance reform need not be so convoluted and complicated, is also well taken. What is missing in this discussion is the concept of a single-payer healthcare solution, such as HR 676, which would expand Medicare to all Americans without sacrificing quality of care.
Introduced by Rep. John Conyers in 2005, HR 676 would be funded by co-equal contributions from employees and employers. It would also levy additional taxes on the top 5 percent of income earners. Additional funding would come from a minuscule levy on stock transactions.
But the biggest problem facing any kind of serious reform that benefits Americans, is the huge sums of corporate money that sucks the honest representation out of our electeds.