Under the Paperweight, September 20-26, 2009
The health care reform push looks more and more like another big government bailout, this time benefiting the federal bureaucracy (which has failed to manage Medicare) and corporate health care interests (which have failed their customers) at the expense of American taxpayers.
This editor questioned the employer mandate, which has now expanded to an individual mandate as well. Both benefit the insurance industry. Where is there any provision that will mandate cuts in existing premiums? Taxpayers who currently have insurance are likely to see their premiums rise, not fall, according to this LA Times analysis.
In response to a question from Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) Congressional Research Service staff testified that taxes proposed on pharmaceutical and insurance companies will likely be passed along in premium hikes as well.
Legislators including this California congressman highlighted a gag order the Senate issued on health care insurers who participate in Medicare Advantage. And a Wall Street Journal editorial seconded dissident legislators’ push for a 72-hour public review of any health care reform package that is finalized and comes up for a vote.
Considering the stakes and effects on every U.S. citizen, we should all have a chance to review and comment on health care reform legislation once it is finalized.
Meanwhile, the public option is picking up more and more detractors as negative articles like this about other countries’ wait times and rationing continue to appear.
The pressing issue for me is that there are many tens of millions of people who lack access to basic health care in the first place, either because premiums are shockingly expensive or because they are denied coverage in the first place. My father had a heart attack while between jobs and the best coverage he could afford paid only half of his expenses. Now he has large medical bills and no prospect of getting better private insurance on his own because of his preexisting condition. Comprehensive employer provided health benefits seem to be a thing of the past. There has to be a better way.
Employer provided health benefits are an anachronism and should be eliminated completely. They reduce transparency by hiding the cost to the end user. They become a major issue when workers change or lose a job. They trap some people in full-time employment who would rather be entrepreneurs. They benefit insurance companies at the expense of taxpayers, because workers in general are a healthier segment of the population.
Relying on insurance companies, whose goal is actually to prevent health care resource use, isn’t logical. There does have to be a better way. Health care reform should solve the problems for citizens like your father first, rather than propping up insurance companies or saving the Medicare bureaucracy.