Thursday, July 16, 2009

Health Care Debate

I had this exchange on an email thread I've been on since 2004 or so re: Nationalized Health Care:

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(My friend Larry said): the free market has proven that it cannot run health care.

(Me): You're kidding right? What we need is a FREER market. As it stands, 82% of all Americans have health coverage. I know of NOBODY who has ever gone untreated in this country (with one exception, and that guy was running from the law...). When I was between contracts last year, I CHOOSE NOT TO HAVE coverage for 7 months. Dumb? Maybe. But, a lot of college age kids and young adults CHOOSE not to get coverage. Not a tragedy.

Did I tell you about my friend Dave?

My friend Dave had virtually NO assets, and when he got sick with heart disease and cancer, the government covered him COMPLETELY. The government took care of ALL his hospital bills from 1999 until he died (AS WE ALL WILL) in 2003. The Government covered his housing for a couple years at the end, too. The worst part of the story was the horrific government bureaucracy he had to deal with. He HATED that part. He sank endless hours filling out paper work as he suffered horribly and was on the way to his grave.

I feel bad for Eric's story of the high cost of his ER visit. However, when I got in a car wreck, I had to pay $500 to repair the car. My body is a lot more important to me than my car- I'm willing to pay to keep it (my body) going.

That bottom line is: "What is important to you?" Upholding the constitution and it's guarantees of freedom or a bunch of free goodies?

I'll throw out the quote I've heard from leftist friends re: Bush's wiretapping program:

'Those who would sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither' - Benjamin Franklin


3 comments:

joshuadf said...

He Greg, I agree about the bureaucracy part, but it's hardly limited to government insurers. It took over a year for our private insurer to pay up for the costs associated with Cedar's birth. I can't imagine how painful all those phones calls would have been if we hadn't all come out healthy. Personally I think the public/private thing is a distraction--I don't really care who's paying, but the default claim denials and paperwork needs to be fixed.

Greg Moon said...

Amen, joshuadf.

I should have made clear that I do believe in reform, costs DO seem to be rising too fast. I think the reform will need to involve smarter, leaner government regulations that encourage competition while keeping an eye on maintaining quality.

Rose said...

I agree Greg.

Last time I was in the emergency room, nine out of ten people there HAD insurance. What they did not have, and what I did not have, was a doctor.

Doctors here are closing their doors. And the remaining ones aren't taking new patients. If you are in desperate straits, you may be able to get seen if you are referred by another doctor of some kind.

We pay $900 a month for insurance (family) with $5,000 deductible per person per year.

Our combined medical file is less than 1/4 inch thick. Thankfully, we are healthy. But what it means is, we not only pay the insurance premiums, we also pay for all doctor visits, and all prescriptions on TOP of the insurance.

Our premiums, a few years back, were $150 a month, and we switched to Blue Cross for that reason, because the coverage we had with another carrier had risen over $500 a month. Unfortunately, the $150 has now become $900.

What's it mean? I dunno. We don't need the government to take it over. More reasonable premiums would be nice, but...Govt. takeover is not going to make more doctors available, quite the opposite.

Eh, lots more to add, but this is getting long enough already.

DESPITE what I am paying - I DO NOT want to see government take over this or anything else.