A Quick Word About HealthCare Reform

Boy, have they, the politicians, bungled this. A ton has already been written about the subject. My opinion is pretty simple. I would love for there to be at least some acknowledgment from our politicians that our healthcare system has some positive aspects. In fact it is one of the best, if not the outright best (depending on which person you talk to and what their political leanings are).

When going about changing a system you ought to first consider what is good and right about the current one. That way you can see that the damage to the good stuff is kept to a minimum.

I look at this foolish healthcare reform bill and I see the attempt to change an entire system. It is utterly ridiculous.

Are insurance companies awesome? Maybe some are but I recognize, especially working in the mental health field, that there is a lot of room for improvement. But, changing the entire system is not the answer.

Government run health care is in the experimental stage, and guess what; several test runs have already been conducted. You can look at a number of nations, Canada and the UK for example, and see how awesome their programs have been. But, even more importantly, to me, is that you can look at several states within our own country. Massachusetts is just the latest example of the government healthcare option not working. Tennessee and Hawaii both have tried it also, with little success. In fact Hawaii's government program, which was all about the kiddies, failed in the midst of last years election. Thanks media for giving the nation the scoop on that story! (sarcasm fully intended) The results are decreased healthcare quality, more money spent and more government in the lives of the people.

I also want to give a shoutout to Medicare. Yeah Medicare! (when I did spellcheck I realized that medicare has to be capitalized, part of me wants to rebel, but I’ll go ahead and conform on this issue:) The program is the most difficult for healthcare providers to work with. It's hard to find providers who will accept it because of that fact. The government does a lousy job running things that they have no business running. Also, of note is that the current healthcare reform bill calls for a $500 billion cut in Medicare in order to pay for the public option. Some will say, well the government is just reserving money they already were going to use for the same purpose, healthcare. But, the reality is that this is an important transfer of wealth. Medicare's primary users are the elderly. Now, they will find that the money that could have been spent on them will go to someone else, as determined by the government. Spread the wealth around, make sure a little less goes to our seniors, I mean it's not like they put the most money into the system or anything.

Medicare has all sorts of debt problems, like the rest of the government. They are now trying nefarious things in order to boost their profits. My sister owns a business that is mostly reliant on elderly folks who use Medicare to cover the cost of products for diabetes and wound care and such. She is being forced to jump through all sorts of hoops this past year in order to maintain her ability to be Medicare compliant. They are trying to make money off of ridiculous rules (on the upside her children will now know which doors are exits in their home), either that or trying to run any small businesses that work in the healthcare field out of business. It quite frankly ticks me off.

Wow, that quick word turned into quite a rant. Healthcare does have some problems. The best way to solve them is to first look at what is good. Then you can make changes as necessary. What would be nice is if the government would actually let the free market be free in this instance (well all instances, but we take what we can get). I am also positively in favor of Tort reform. That's about it. Oh I would definitely be part of the mob, thankfully my rep is voting no on this disaster. Though, my senators will likely vote yes, and will not be holding town hall meetings (I checked). Also, I turned myself in to the snitch site, and anyone else who does not like the health reform bill should consider doing it too. Email your report about yourself to flag@whitehouse.gov

Have a good and healthy day.