Do We Need Health Care Reform?

Everywhere you go on the internet, there is talk about health care reform.  Looking briefly at Obama’s plan for health care reform, the face of health care will be drastically changed.

But, is such an extreme overhaul necessary?  The reasons given for reform are there are so many without health insurance it and the spiraling rise in the cost of health care.

The population of the US is about 304 million, based on 2008 estimates.  It is estimated that about 46 million people do not have health insurance.  About 20% of these are illegal aliens.

So, do we need to completely disrupt our health care service delivery to accommodate 1/6 of our population?

There is no question that something needs to be done to help the 46 million who do not have health insurance.

Most of the uninsured are uninsured because they do not have enough money to pay for health insurance.  At $200-$300 for an individual and $700-$800 to insure a family, many just cannot afford health insurance.

The federal government already runs two huge health delivery systems—Medicare and Medicaid.  Both are rife with fraud and mismanagement.

I worked for the Social Security Administration for over 33 years and have first hand knowledge of the problems within the Medicare program.

Medicare is a program on the verge of insolvency, yet $500 million will be taken out of the Medicare program to finance Obama’s health care reform.  Where will that leave the seniors and disabled—with an even more inadequate health insurance coverage?

A very small percentage of fraud within the Medicare program is addressed simply because there are not enough investigators to handle all the cases.  After years of downsizing, the federal government just does not have the personnel to handle the workload.  And anyone with the resources carries a supplemental policy to their Medicare simply because of the inadequacy of their coverage.

But after the criticisms have been leveled, both programs do provide health care coverage to their targeted groups, even though it is inadequate.  It is better than no coverage at all.

Can we expect anything more from the massive health care reforms being sold to the country now?

I have had the same health care policy for over 30 years.  It is not perfect, but I reared two wonderful children on this policy.  It has covered all our illnesses and surgeries that occurred during our lifetime with reasonable co-pays.  My wife and I feel it is among the best for the money.

Now I am being told that, if this reform passes, that I will have to give up this insurance and switch over to a government administered policy.  This scares the daylights out of me and makes me very angry at a government that is supposed to be representing all of its citizens.  There are millions of people that probably feel exactly as I do.

I do not want to give up what has proved to be good insurance for a program that is run by the federal government.  I do not believe that the millions who have had adequate health insurance want that either.

With the federal government’s track record on administering health care, who would want to give up a proven product?

As an alternative, use the Medicaid program as a framework, since it is already geared to the poor.  Open it up to the working poor and others with inadequate or no health insurance, establish premiums based on income, and paid for entirely by the federal government.

Most, if not all of the uninsured and under-insured would have access to health insurance, if the cost is reasonable.  I know that this is a very simplistic approach, but something along these lines might just work without destroying the entire framework of our health care.

We still have a voice and now is the time to use it!!

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