Common Sense Approach to Health Care

As you can see, I originally posted this on Oct 9, 2008. I decided to repost it to show that common sense can be applied to the health care issue. In the months since this post, I have also come to think about the whole "45 million Americans without Health Care Insurance" and have concluded, using a bit of common sense, that is nothing but a ploy to drive universal health care down our throats. Take out those who can afford but choose not to buy H.C. Ins. and the number is 30 million. Take out the 20 million here illegally and what we really have are 10 million Americans without H.C. Ins. Something tells me if politicians tried to create a crisis out of that, they'd be tarred and feathered out of office. Anyway, what follows is my original post from last October...

Posted by sbabbidge on 10/09/08



Friends,

Last night, at the second Presidential debate, the
candidates were posed a question about health care - Is it a right, a
privilege or a responsibility? I intend to in the next paragraphs to
give you my take on the correct answer.

Is it a right? - Very
simply, the answer is no. And that is an emphatic no for those keeping
score. The basis for my answer lies in the US Constitution. There is no
place in the Constitution that declares health care as a right bestowed
upon our citizens. We do, in fact, have many rights.....health care is
simply not one of them. And, like so very many other things, Barack
Obama is flat wrong and proves himself again to have no respect for the
principles of our country when he, and others like him, try to tell you
health care is a right.

Is it a privilege? You bet it is! There
are some Socialist countries that provide health care for all
citizens....and by every factual account ever created, the quality and
efficiency of delivery in those systems stink! We have the best
available health care anywhere in the world....but just because you
live here you do not have the right to get that care.....it is a
privilege you have to earn, that is, you have to PAY for it.

Does
that mean that some people should and some people should not have
access to health care? Absolutely not. We all should, and we all DO
have access to health care. Let me use this example to further my point:

If
you live in America, you have a plethora of choices for transportation.
These choices get you from where you are to where you want to be. You
may choose to pay a fare and take a bus or a cab. You may walk, or ride
a bike. You may want your own car...perhaps a car that gets high gas
mileage, perhaps you want a gas guzzling truck, or maybe you want a
high end luxury car. Or, perhaps, your choice is dictated by your
ability to pay. You see, owning your own luxury automobile comes with a
price. If you want the finest car, you must pay for it. If you can't
afford the best, or the most options, then you have to choose the car
(ie health care plan) that works for you and your budget. But, much
like choosing the mode of transportation that works for you in your
situation, you should also have the privilege (and responsibility) for
choosing the health care plan that best meets your needs.

One of
the major problems we have in this country today is that people think
they are entitled to the best of the best of everything without having
to work hard, make choices and EEEEEEK sacrifice to get what they want.
Health care is no different. Everyone wants to best health care, but no
one wants to admit it comes with a cost and then foot the bill for the
type and amount and level of care they receive.

Exacerbating
this dilemma is the fact that health care and health care delivery in
America, is controlled and dictated not by the doctor and patient, but
by the insurance companies and the Federal and state governments. Using
the car example again, how many of us would accept having a 3rd party
tell us what car we can and can't drive? That's exactly what happens
today in our system. We must change this system.

We must also
educate people about health care insurance. Most people would be
financially ruined if a catastrophic medical incident happened to them
and they were without health care insurance. That is a fact. At the
same time, most people think about health care insurance as "how much
is my dr visit co pay, and what is my prescription co pay?".....we look
at health insurance the wrong way when we view it from behind those
glasses.

Insurance, by it's very nature, is a tool designed to
protect us in the event of an unforeseen, unpredictable catastrophic
event. If you have life insurance, you bought it to protect your loved
ones in the event you die (death is a certainty, but depending on one's
age, it can be an unforeseen and unpredictable event) and you have car
insurance to protect you from a costly accident or in the event you get
in an accident with an uninsured motorist. Why do we think of health
care insurance as something to offset the already low cost of a doctor
visit or 7 day prescription??? It makes no sense!

Health care
insurance should be like other insurances. We should have a choice of
major medical policies with the OPTION to choose the riders we want and
don't want included. Presently the Federal government and state
governments force insurance companies to insure over 65 different rare
and catastrophic diseases....the reality is that the overwhelming
majority of people don't ever get those diseases yet the government
REGULATES that the insurance companies must insure and charge to insure
those things.....that drives up the cost of insurance for everyone. If
I don't want cruise control, I am not forced into buying a car that has
cruise control. Why should the way we buy health care insurance be any
different?????

So, my plan would look like this:

1. Educate people on the differences in policies.
2.
Allow people total choice in what policies they buy, what the
deductibles and co pays mean in terms of service level and cost, laying
all the options on the table for every consumer.
3. With every major
medical policy, and to encourage people to take the lowest
premium/highest deductible option, a credit card to be used ONLY to
cover the policy deductible, would be included with issuance of the
policy. The fact is, not everyone has $10,000 lying around to be used
for the deductible on their major medical policy. Likewise, we don't
need to be giving credit cards out, but having the credit available and
ONLY allowing it to be used to cover major medical deductibles just
makes sense.
4. Allow people to see what it costs for their dr co
pays and prescription co pays. Many Americans, when shown the financial
facts, will choose to forego this type of insurance and the savings
will be substantial!
5. I also believe we should get employers out
of providing health care insurance. Encourage employers further by
telling them if they take the money they have been spending on employee
premiums and increase their employees salaries by that same amount,
that they will get a tax credit equal to the amount of the pay
increase. This will put more money in the paychecks of workers.
Teaching employees to buy smart insurance will save them more, and then
with the difference between the pay raise and the health care premium
amounts, let's give people tax credits for investing that extra money
into their pre or post tax retirement accounts. It's a win-win all
around.

All of which leads me to....is it a responsibility? The
answer here is an emphatic YES. It is NOT, repeat NOT, the governments
responsibility to do anything but provide for the national defense and
settle disputes between states. (OK, perhaps that is my slightly
utopian view of how our country should operate, but we should approach
everything from a limited federal government view, instead driving
governing decisions to the most local level possible) It is NOT
governments responsibility to provide/pay for health care or health
care insurance for the vast majority of Americans (I happen to think
that Medicare is a valuable and needed program, as is Medicaid in some
but not all instances). It is our responsibility to take care of our
own health care and it is a great gift that we live in a country in
which we can have such a privilege.

If you don't take care of
yourself, don't buy health insurance b/c you choose to buy other things
instead, then you must accept the personal responsibility for the
consequences of your actions. That is the key fundamental difference
between people like you and me and people on the Socialist left. We
believe in the greatness of America and our people. They think America
and our people are unable to make smart choices and responsible
decisions. The Socialist left wants more and more people to be
dependent on big government.....that's how they increase the number of
people that vote for them in elections.

So, there is a plan to
make health care insurance more accessible and more affordable to more
people, while still being compassionate and using tax dollars to help
care for the elderly and the most needy among us (needy meaning there
is a lack of ability to care for oneself, not a lack of desire). It
moves control to the hands of the consumer and away from government. It
reduces restrictions on insurance companies, which will allow for
insurance companies to be more flexible in the way they build and
structure policies. It gets employers out of the mix and encourages
them to do so. It also puts more money in the hands of working people.
In these economic times, it's a plan we can all live with.

As always, thanks for reading!