Healthcare or Insurance

The House of Representatives has passed a bill which addresses insurance. Insurance does not address health care, it addresses how health care is paid. U.S. citizens pay more for medical care than most other countries and the care received is less accomplished than in most other countries. Medicaid and Medicare are current government programs which are much more costly than ever was projected. By forcing insurance the government hopes to defray some of that cost. The legal system has forced health care facilities to provide medical care to indigent persons regardless of citizenship. If one does not have insurance and does not pay for their medical care, the cost of their care is passed to those who do as if it were overhead. Check you medical bills. When a stay in a hospital costs thousands of dollars just for the bed and board, the next bed is occupied by a stranger whose care you will pay for within your bill. The hospital has no choice but to array its costs among those who do pay.

If more of these "don't pay" patients are covered by insurance, due to government program, the cost of insurance will rise to cover the additional costs to insurance companies. Why? (1)Because the effect of the government program does not reduce greed on the part of the insurance companies or patients. (2) Because the number of malpractice claims in courts will increase the potential of lawyers who feed at that trough with ever increasing greed. (3) Because the program does not resolve a shortage of competent doctors entering the system, less capable physicians remain, providing cause for more legal claims and less in the value of care given.

In fact there is no "reform" in the government program, if you consider reform to mean improvement will result. Medical care costs have risen because the cost to provide it have increased. This increase not based upon value, but to cover the extraordinary insurance cost for providers to avoid risk and to cover the cost of significant increases of "non-paying" patients.

It is a simple problem to resolve:
(1) Allow medical facilities to deny non-paying customers.
(2) Establish a fair and reasonable limit to malpractice claims.
(3) Provide medical education at government cost to students who contract to provide medical practice at locations determined most needed, for a period of obligation, at a reasonable wage. A student who fails, would be charged the full costs expended.
A doctor who reneges on his obligation, is jailed where he can provide for other criminals.

Inhumane? No, just practical. Sickness and poor health is not caused by society or government. Whether by accident, misfortune, genetic predisposition or neglect, the health of an individual is an individual responsibility. The risks must be assumed by the individual. If I were to become ill with a horrible disease must my neighbor then take on all of my care and needs unwillingly? If my neighbor feels compassion or charity towards me can he not give what he believes to be reasonable care within his means? Could I die? Inevitably yes. At what point in life is society responsible for my continuing living? Under what conditions should I expect strangers to care for me...regardless of what I have done to care for myself?

Reform must begin with the individual.