Where has the public option gone? I thought the point was twofold: reduce costs of health care because it is eating up so much of our incomes and give 46 million people without health care an option they could afford. The economics are pretty straight forward, if anything is straight forward when it comes to Washington. Containing the amount of money the nation spends on health care, must, in my opinion, see some money spent to educate Americans about a healthier life style. Many dollars are going towards treating things that could be prevented if we gave people the education necessary to live a more healthy life style. Second, do we really care about the 46 million people that don't have health insurance? Why should we? If they can't make enough money to buy their own health insurance, why should we care? The answer is anyone of us that is working can lose their job and with it their health insurance. One day you are middle class, and the next day you are homeless. What does that say about us as a people? I think people will still strive to make a better life for themselves and their families, but what do we do with those that can't afford health insurance for themselves, or can't get it? Letting them go to emergency rooms is economically an expensive answer. It would be far better for people to have good health care year round, not just when they are sick. What happened to that old saying that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure"?
I don't think the insurance industry or the securities and investment industries are policed enough. People in any line of business where there are big bucks to be made need regulation, oversight and transparency. If fixing health care was easy, it would have been done a long time ago, is a common phrase, but the real issue is money. The politicians need money to run an effective campaign for re-election, so, the American people wind up with the best government money can buy. Somewhere they need to throw a bone to the masses in the form of a public health care option. It makes economic sense to do it now.
Stay tuned.
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In the same vein, I would refer you to a CNN Commentary piece from former CIGNA PR Executive, Wendell Potter (very conservative, politically), who left the company because he could no longer stomach what the insurance industry was doing to defeat any health care reforms. He point-blank says everything we've all known all along, about how the insurance industry funnels millions of dollars in premiums to large PR firms to put together "talking points" for their pocket politicos to parrot to their front groups and the press. He flat-out says it was the insurance industry that defeated the Clinton plan.
What I am beginning to see in the news (print, TV and online) is growing concern and skepticism from both democrats and republicans about the cost to fund the proposed healthcare plan.
Also read that the Administration is not pushing the "private option" because, somehow, it's not an important issue!!
It boggles the mind!
Well, Fred, we do know that you're on the side of common sense and doing the most good for the most people, but I wonder if you don't sometimes feel like the voice crying in the wilderness.
Thanks for your cogent commentaries!
Summer
What is so ironic is that healthcare IS being rationed today. Insurance companies decide what procedures will be done and who will be covered. Physicians have to comply or not get paid. Anyone with any pre-existing condition canot get coverage.
And yet, we having people yelling at the top of their lungs that the government wants to end health care as we know it.
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