Back to Basics

Did I miss something in the new health care reform proposals?  When did the democrats’ proposals provide free office visits, free medications and free medical procedures to everyone?

I recently had a conversation with a friend that has a pre-existing medical condition and is very concerned about being able to obtain affordable health insurance.  He is currently insured and is paying what I would consider a very reasonable price for his monthly premiums (less than $200/month).  He must also take medications that run about $2000 per year.  Understandably he is concerned about health care issues.  He indicated a friend of his is on some government insurance plan (he didn’t specify which one) and that this friend is able to obtain all of his medical and dental treatments and medications at no cost to him.

It seems that some people in favor of the democrats government run proposals are assuming that this health care is somehow not going to cost them anything, other than maybe a monthly insurance premium.  They assume the cost of office visits, medical treatments, medications and dental services are going to be provided free of charge.

I read H.R. 3200 and have heard the reviews on the Baucus bill.  Nowhere would I interpret these bills as providing free medical and dental treatments for all, with the only obligation being a monthly insurance premium.  People with certain income levels could qualify for government assistance in paying for the monthly premiums and co-pays, but it certainly did not come with a free price tag.  In fact, I read some reviews on the Baucus bill indicating the co-pays and other costs the consumers would have to pay would actually make health care less affordable to middle-class Americans.

Until the health care reform became an issue, I assumed that once someone retired and was on Medicare that those medical premiums would also be free.  I found out otherwise when talking to my parents.  When on Medicare after you retire you pay a monthly insurance premium, which is taken out of your Social Security check to cover your Medicare health insurance.  Further, you continue have out-of-pocket expenses, like cost-sharing, for medical treatments received.  If you are on the government medication system you also continue paying a portion of the medication.  My grandmother was paying out of her own pocket $1200 a year for her medication and she was on Medicare and had a secondary medical insurance policy.

So you have to wonder if those in favor of the government health care actually understand the consequences of the program.  The government program would not be a free system – you will be paying for premiums, co-pays, and cost-sharing.  You will further be paying to supplement those who cannot afford insurance and the cost of medical treatment.  If you think your premiums and cost today are high, they will only go higher with government controlled plans.  As a bonus to the higher costs you will have no choice but purchase these plans because now it becomes a law that you must have insurance.  If you don’t, you will be penalized by the IRS, and may also face imprisonment.

So, before jumping on the government control bandwagon, look at the other proposals being offered.  Every plan wants those with pre-existing conditions to be covered at costs within reasonable limits of a regular policy.  Every plan wants to provide insurance coverage to all that don’t have it.  No plan offers free insurance, free medical, free dental or free medicine to all.  Do you want the government controlling your medical treatment and care, along with mandatory requirements, higher premiums and higher taxes?  Or do you want patient choice?

I urge everyone to really understand the bills being proposed – read them!  The concerns out there are very real.  This is your future – your life!  Nothing the government provides is free, and the health care reform is no exception.

Corruption in government – it starts with the election process.  Special interest groups, labor unions, big pharma, all making campaign contributions supporting the candidate that is going to give them the back room deals they are after.  Why do you think this country is in this much trouble!  They have all basically bought and paid for the candidate of choice, the one who is looking out for their special interests instead of the interests of the American people.  The corruption needs to stop now, and reform needs to start with the funding of political campaigns.

The democrats seem to want to make everything equal – take from the rich and give to the poor.  So let’s start with campaign funding.  Let’s implement this equal for all system for the politicians, right from the start of the campaign process.  It’s time for a radical campaign funding change.

Instead of companies and individuals supporting one candidate over another, campaign contributions would be made to a government fund for each elected position.  There would be one fund for the president, one for each state senator race, one for each representative of the house race.  All campaign monies would go into this fund and NO OTHER funding for campaigns would be permitted.  The money from these funds would then be divided equally to all candidates running for that position, whether it be two or more.  Everyone would have an equal opportunity in campaigning for the desired position.

How the campaign spends this money would be up to them, but they would have to limit spending to only the money received from the fund.  It would be restricted, of course, to legal activities only.  At the end of the campaign a full disclosure of the money would be required within a specific timeframe and an audit would be completed on the final campaign funds.  Any money remaining from the election would be returned to the fund for the next elections.  There could be no “outstanding balance due” at the end of the campaign.

A radical move, but the problems we see in the government today are because every special interest group and every company has their own agenda and they have all made deals with the politicians to get what they want.  They donate and expect to receive benefits in return – and they don’t just mean a thank you letter.  The government is no longer run by the people, for the people.  It is being run by special interests and big business.  This has got to stop!  Start the reform where the corruption begins – the campaign funding.  Equal opportunity for everyone.

The democrats’ approach to reforming the health care system makes about as much sense as amputating an arm because someone broke a finger.  Instead of addressing the problems in smaller doses they are going to turn the entire system upside down.  I don’t know if they have been listening, but the United States has the best health care in the world.  Why would you want to destroy that?  They want to model it after systems like Canada, but have they listened to the complaints and problems Canada has?  People from Canada come to the United States for treatment because they can’t get it in their own country!  Canadians also have to carry secondary insurance because the government insurance isn’t good enough.  They also pay a HUGE percentage of their income (and not just the “rich”) to pay for these programs.  Is this really what we want?

Even in our own country the state of Massachusetts has their own version of universal health care.  Just recently they reported a cut in coverage to certain groups of people because they don’t have the money to keep the system running.  People who once had good coverage are complaining because they now have to wait to see a doctor or get treatment.  Sure, they may brag that they have the lowest uninsured population, but having the insurance and obtaining care are not the same thing.  The Massachusetts system has started failing in 3 years!

So I ask again – are the democrats listening?  Repackage, renaming or doing whatever creative means to disguise the same bill is still an attempt at passing the same bill.  We are getting tired of the democrats and president trying to sell the same used car with a different paint job.

Reform should start with the very basics and address the problems of the system.  Take it a step at a time, making changes to address the critical problems first, and then continue to monitor the system to see how much more is needed.  Treat the system like a patient – don’t do radical surgery when medication or a change of diet may solve the problem.

The uninsured is one of the current issue.  There are a good percentage of uninsured that have chosen to be uninsured.  They are people who are making a decent living and have made a personal choice not to obtain insurance.  Perhaps they are young and don’t feel the need for it.  They may be a family who does not have the children covered but the parents are.  Whatever the reason, it is their choice.  The government should not force them to purchase insurance.  However, if they have chosen not to obtain insurance then taxpayers should also not have to foot the bill for their medical issues.

The government has caused one of the problems in the system today by passing a law stating everyone has access to health care through the hospitals whether they can afford to pay for it or not.  This law allows anyone, including illegal immigrants, to visit their local hospital and obtain care for anything.  Many of these visits are for something that should be taken care of in a doctor’s office or clinic, but because they don’t have insurance they visit the hospital.  If insurance reform is made, then this law should be revised to only include life threatening illnesses or injuries only to citizens or legal immigrants.  Any minor health issues would be seen as long as the person could pay for the services, or should be referred to a clinic or doctor – which also would require payment.  So, if the person makes the choice not to purchase health insurance then they would have to deal with the financial consequences – not the taxpayers and not the hospital.

I am not talking about the citizens who simply cannot afford insurance.  Part of any reform should include government subsidies to help those people obtain insurance.  Many are now eligible for Medicaid or a state health care system, so they are not without coverage.  If they have not applied for that coverage you cannot blame the system; you have to hold the individual responsible at some point.  These services should continue, but should be limited to citizens or legal immigrants only.

The second group of uninsured are those with pre-existing conditions or chronic illnesses who cannot afford coverage or have had coverage cancelled or been declined coverage.  Congress has already passed a bill that allows states to set up high risk pools to provide insurance for these individuals.  The system has already been established, but many states have failed to create that system.  Some states have done a great job, others have struggled.  You have to start holding states responsible.  Take those states that have created the system that works and make it mandatory for all states to create a system that models the ones proven to work.

Another group of uninsured are those whose employer does not offer health insurance or the small business owner.  There are some policies offered to cover these individuals, but in my own search for a policy I found it difficult to find, more expensive with less coverage.  There is no reason creating new pooling systems to provide insurance policies to these people cannot be done.  The insurance companies need to be responsive to the need and demand for these policies and they need to be allowed the opportunity to create such pools.  The policies should be equivalent to those offered to large corporations at similar rates.  Further, anyone that pays for their own insurance policy should be given some sort of tax advantage, similar to what employees receive when they purchase insurance through their employer.

Insurance policies should also be customizable to individual needs.  Your basic insurance plan needs to be established to cover all the basic medical needs anyone may encounter.  The individual should then be able to determine and purchase additional options to customize their care.  If you are a single male or a female beyond childbearing age or have had a hysterectomy, then you would not need to “add” maternity coverage to your policy.  If you don’t smoke or drink alcohol then you wouldn’t need to add coverage to address those issues.  You may want to “add” chiropractic services to your plan, maybe naturopathic medicine, children’s well care checkups, hair replacement treatments, or any number of other options that would meet your needs and personal beliefs to address your health issues.  Other options would include what deductibles you want to set, co-pays for office visits or other services, and the percentage you want to be responsible for.  In this manner people would be paying only for the services they want and need instead of some inflated policy covering medical issues they will never use.  These policies should be made affordable and each individual would have control over their costs.  If they can only afford the basic coverage, then that would be their choice.  If they really want cosmetic surgery covered, then maybe that is an option they could add that they would also pay an additional premium fee for.  The choice should be up to the customer – not the insurance company or employer.

How many more strings do the democrats need to pull to try pushing through a health care plan that isn’t going to solve the problems but create more?  They talk of compromise and throw out alternatives to the public option.  The entire bill is needs to be scrapped!

Removing the public option only addresses a small portion of the bill.  The exchange program itself is a large part of the problem.  The exchange program is the government takeover of the health care system. It is through the exchange program that the government will take control over what policies will be sold, will establish the benefits and will set pricing standards for the policies.  Setting up the exchange alone costs billions of dollars, expands government, and creates a whole new government entity to control the insurance industry.  It is through this exchange program that people will end up losing their current coverage.  If all insurance policies within the next 5 years have to go through the exchange then in 5 years the government will have control over all insurance policies whether the public option is part of the program or not.  The exchange program is the government brokering insurance policies!  Why should the government go into the business of insurance brokerage?  The fact is – they SHOULDN’T.  The government needs to leave this to private industry.

Private industry needs to be given the parameters to address the current insurance needs and concerns, and there are a number of alternative bills that address these issues.  None of these bills call for a government takeover of insurance.  None of these alternative bills create a government exchange program to broker policies.  None of these bills penalize individuals for not purchasing insurance.

What the alternatives do is give responsibility to each individual to determine their insurance needs, not the government.  It allows them to choose the policy they feel meets their needs and make adjustments so they may afford the policy.  If individuals are responsible for their insurance needs then maybe they will make better choices when it comes to purchasing a policy and the utilization of the medical care under those policies.  The alternatives give a tax credit to individuals and families to apply toward the purchase of these insurance policies if they are not otherwise covered under an employment-based plan.  It also gives the individual options, so if the employer makes the choice to decrease coverage or chooses a plan that doesn’t meet the needs of the individual, then that employee could purchase a plan outside of the employer and receive the tax credit to help offset the cost.  These alternatives keep the employee from staying in a job just because of insurance, and if they become unemployed an outside insurance policy would come with them, making the expensive Cobra payments a thing of the past.

The alternatives allow the insurance companies to create new pooling mechanisms, providing new opportunities to offer policies.  They would require the insurance companies to provide affordable insurance plans to people with pre-existing conditions, at only a slightly higher premium cost.  Some alternative plans would even permit the sale of insurance across state lines.

Equally important, the alternatives do not take away care for our seniors.  The problems with the Medicare system need to be addressed separately.  You cannot take money away from the senior population to provide insurance for the uninsured.  That doesn’t solve any problems and only creates new ones.

Likewise, the pork or earmarks in the House bill are not in the alternatives.  There is over $88 billion in earmarks in H.R. 3200 that further expand the role of government, support illegal immigrants and support labor unions!

Obama promised not to sign any bill that would increase the deficit of the country.  If he intends to keep that promise then there is no way H.R. 3200 should be signed because it will not only increase the deficit but will increase the cost of insurance policies, create penalties for individuals as well as companies, and will increase taxes for everyone.  There is no magical way to pay for a $1 trillion program – the bottom line is the taxpayers will be footing the bill.  Disguising the taxes as penalties, employment costs, increases in Social Security withholdings or other creative ways is still an increase and taxes and an increase in cost to taxpayers.

Health care is a personal issue, and the government should not be making those decisions for you.  This isn’t a campaign for office that can be voted out in four years.  This is a change that will affect everyone in this country!  Any bill that creates a government run exchange program is a plan that grants a government take over of the insurance industry.  Once an exchange program is established, it will only be a matter of time before the public option is added if not initially included, and soon after the whole system is converted to a one-payer plan.  This needs to be stopped now!