This past Monday evening I attended a Health Care Town hall hosted By Congresswoman Dina Titus. I found it to be a very fascinating experience and I appreciated it because I was introduced to several viewpoints which I never would have considered before. The crowd was very tough and riled up. I admire Congresswoman Titus for her patience and calm during the whole meeting. There were several hecklers looking for their 15 minutes of fame which I found to be very distasteful.
When asked whether she would enroll in the new health insurance option created by the government, Congresswoman Titus gave a hearty and sincere "Yes". For this I give her a lot of credit. Many of her colleagues would not do the same.
One point which was addressed which I found particularly interesting was the topic of allowing health insurance to be taken across state lines. I am for this because I believe that if their is a national public option I believe that insurance companies should be allowed to compete on a level field. However, Congresswoman Titus brought up an interesting point which was that each state has its own insurance commissioner with with its own set of rules an guidelines. So in order to make health insurance portable across state lines federal regulations will have to be created to allow exchangability. This is something that I had never considered before.
Another highlight was when Congresswoman Titus was asked about the financing for the new reform, one of the ways she said that it would be paid for was through addressing fraud and abuse in the current Medicare/Medicaid system. The crowd responded to this with a chorus of laughter. While I feel, and I am sure most people agree, that fraud has to be addressed in the new legislation because it is a huge drain and waste on taxpayer resources, I think such a negative reaction to this suggestion reflects the distrust and lack of faith that the population has in the government. Honestly I have to agree. The government of late has not done anything to restore our trust in their fiscal responsibility.
While addressing fraud and abuse are a step in the right direction, I still see no real way to pay for this new legislation. Despite what Congresswoman Titus believes, that this new plan could possibly make money, I still do not understand how that is possible. It is my perspective that if the government creates mandates and standards which all insurance companies are required to cover, the only thing that I can see that doing is driving the costs up for everyone. Mandates will not only create more costs for insurance companies to cover, which will than be passed onto the consumer, but they will also be able to charge more because everyone will have to have the same requirements whether they want to or not. While Congresswoman Titus did an excellent job clarifying the new leglislation, I still have many lingering doubts about how this will improve our healthcare delivery system.
Let me know what you think. Here is a link to a local news story about the town hall:
The only reason there is not competition in the health insurance industry is because the insurance companies do not want it. We have Auto Insurnace companies that compete in all 50 states, GEICO, Farmers, AllState, eInsurance, etc. The health insurance companies have colluded and the government has looked the other way. Because so much is at stake business wise, the health insurance companies would jump into all 50 states and compete against each other if they were required to. The real problem with health insurance is that Americans are so unhealthy. The baby boomers are going to cause a tidal wave of joint replacements. I cringe when I hear talk of it being every person's right medical coverage. The fact of the matter is that insurance is a mechanism to spread costs and if you make $30,000 per year and get a $50,000 knee replacement, who is going to pay for that? The great generation has milked intergenerational transfer payments about as far as it is going to go. Baby Boomers are going to completely drain SSI. So, are we expecting Gen X who is making $9 an hour at Walmart to pick up the tab? I think not. The first thing we all have to realize is that there is no free lunch. We all get what we pay for, unless we can get the other guy to pay. The first step in fixing the health care crisis is to get heatly, both physically and financially. Where is the old American value of self-reliance? All these Baby Boomers that are thirty pounds or more overweight are not entitled to heavily subsidised joint replacements and heart surgery. Wake up, Gen X is not going to pick up the tab, and this mythical group of people that make more than $250,000 in not going to solve our financial problems by paying thier "fair share". My experience with high income people is that they know how to hang onto their money, that's why they have more than the average person. It just makes good left wing fodder.
ReplyDeleteHey Dad! I agree! The policies that our government is suggesting regarding health care is so illogical. Americans have an overgrown sense of entitlement. Where does everyone think all of this money is going to come from? Someone IS going to be paying for it and there are not enough people who make $250,000 a year and above to pay for everyone's health care! I agree with your statement that, "The first step in fixing the health care crisis is to get heatly, both physically and financially. Where is the old American value of self-reliance?" If we could gain control over our desires America would be in much better shape than it is right now.
ReplyDeleteAhhhh Amy,
ReplyDeleteIt makes a father proud to know the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
-Dad
XOXOXOXOXOXO