Our system of providing health care is broken, and its getting more broken.  Although we have some of the most innovative specialists in the world in this country, many can’t gain access to them.  So when reading this CNN story it occurred to me.

Health Care provision should not be in the hands of for-profit companies.  Its only natural that they are  concerned with profits, investor concerns and Wall Street.  So they make decisions only as generous as is required by state law.  Their very existence puts them at odds with patients needs.  Maybe its time to rethink this.  Maybe a public option or single payer system is in order because this is an issue of protecting the citizenry.

We have a public military.
We have a public police force.
We have a public education system.

We have private alternatives for each of these.  However, the public service is adequate in most cases and in some cases, exemplary.

Just a few thoughts for this morning.

Here’s what I see happening now: People with employer provided health care have a program that works ok.  Some pay a lot for their families but don’t do much about it.  There are those that have great health insurance and don’t pay for anything ever.  There are others that feel that there should be a better option for them because they either don’t have insurance through an employer (maybe carrying 2 or 3 part time jobs) and they can’t afford anything more than an Urgent Care visit or stopping by a Minute Clinic.  And all of them are into this debate because everyone is afraid they have something to loose.

This collage of programs and the current system is a self defeating one in light of our existing ‘free market’ mentality.  Once upon a time congress got excited about this thing called an HMO.  Kaiser was the mastermind of this thing and they are still the shining star for what the HMO can be and is.  HMO’s have an all-inclusive model where everything is included.  Labs, tests, doctor visits, hospitalization, etc.  No one in the program pays for much of anything out of pocket because its all covered by the monthly premium.  If you don’t know this, that premium is pretty big even if you aren’t the one footing the bill.  As people got comfortable with the idea of everything being included and there being a large system that managed their care for them the system got larger and more expensive.  Expense grew for the end user because unlike everyhting else in our lives, we stopped shopping around and letting a ‘free market’ mentality keep costs down.  Now here we are with a very expensive system and we are all a flutter about overhauling it and spending public funds to make sure more people can have this program.  At least thats what it looks like

So enrolling everyone in a public system ranging from public insurance company to single payer health care seems like a good idea except every time we look at the options they are very expensive.  I wonder why they have to be compared to those of other countries.  What is so different here.  I suppose I just don’t know what is so different.  Probably the biggest thing that makes everything look so expensive is the massive military machine that we fund.  That is another topic that I don’t really intend to address, ever.

Perhaps what needs to happen is for the American public to begin to see health insurance the same way they see car insurance and home insurance.  It is there to cover the catastrophic or at least the things that we determine that we could not afford.  Paying for a checkup isn’t very expensive when its on a modest health care plan.  Neither are well baby visits.  Urgent care offices and things like Minute Clinics are great for the small needs and there is no point in getting your insurance involved with those types of things.  We need to learn to shop around not just for what we think are consumer goods, but for our health insurance and doctors because at the end of the day – those are consumer goods as well.  If a people determined to support themselves and take FULL responsibility for their own well being, health and actions were unleashed I suspect this debate would become uninteresting.

So thats it, three long posts is all I intend to write on this topic from now on.  To those that are mad about death panels and denying care to the elderly based on their productivity to society, stop letting your imagination run away.  To those that insist that without government run health care we live in an unjust world and think the government needs to teach us that health care is a basic human right, stop indicting those that want to be left alone to care for themselves and their own families.  It is little more than you want for yourselves.

Continue discussing this with your friends and family and neighbors but stop spreading obvious hysteria and grossly slanted, doom and gloom projections for and against.  Use facts, use reason, use convictions and put the boogy man back in the closet.

Lets look at Canada, for a few reasons.

One: they are next door and culturally they are very similar to the United States as you go from East to West.  Two: I have family there that are politically aware and a little conservatively minded.
Three: they have a ‘socialized’ health care system.
Four: I have a Canadian flag that hangs from my office door thanks to the previously mentioned Canadian family.

Many around here think that if we were to model our health care after Canada we would be inviting a bloated system that doesn’t really serve the patients and rations health care and we would be giving half of our paycheck to the government to pay for this poor version of health care.  Its also been said that Canadians often come to the US for their health needs because we’re the best.  I’ve got news for you.  They Mayo clinic is the best, I’ve never been there and probably never will be there.  The best I can hope for is UCSD or Loma Linda Research Hospitals.

Here are a few things that I know about Canada:

They have some of the most amazing mt bike parks in the world and almost anyone could go there and ride them because no one is afraid of getting sued because too much fun turned into a broken you-name-it.  Hmm….wonder what thats all about?

From what I hear from MY family there the health system works pretty good.  No long lines, care when you need it.  Preventative care when you want it.  No medical bankruptcy.

How about some numbers?  According to the OECD in 2005 (sorry, didn’t find anything more recent) a married couple with 2 kids paid 21.5% of their income for taxes (federal, state, etc).  That is compared to 11.9% for the same family in the U.S.  Sounds pretty disproportionate and that we in the US have it MADE!  Well, here is something else I know.  I saw the numbers on my wife’s health insurance package when she was working full time.  I saw the approximate contribution from the employer as a matter of fact.  That contribution combined with what she contributed amounted to about 25% of her GROSS income.  Now, we weren’t paying the lion’s share of that, but someone was!  It was part of her compensation package.  So, lets just pretend that dollar amount is actually a tax being paid.  And, assuming we fell into the typical U.S. family bracket of 11.9% (which is close) our new tax rate would be 36.9%.

So, if we know that the Canadian taxation rate includes the health taxes I would have to say, at least where my family’s numbers are concerned that they are doing something right up there and SOMEONE is paying less for health care and EVERYONE is covered by the same system.  [Scratching my head].  Again, I know that the dollar amount for health insurance wasn’t being put up by us, but it kind of was – remember it was part of the compensation package.  The employer was paying it.  SOMEONE HAS TO PAY, THIS ISN’T FREE.

YOU CAN’T HAVE A BASIC RIGHT THAT CAN ONLY BE GRANTED AT THE MATERIAL EXPENSE OF ANOTHER.  Just doesn’t work.  Pursuit of life, happiness, whatever is easy to define as a RIGHT, it doesn’t impose ANYTYHING on another other than the requirement to not intentionally BLOCK your right for his gain.

I digress…

The COB says that the new health options on the table will cost 1 trillion dollars and save 4 billion or something.  Bad deal.  They say something like an additional 16 million people will be covered by the new program or will be herded into existing plan options.  I think more than that are currently not covered.  Sounds to me like bad designs.  Why CAN’T we look at another system that seems to be working well and replicate it?  Why reinvent the wheel?  Honest question here?  Can anyone tell me?  Cause right now, the only reason I see is that we are a stiff necked people.  Winston Churchill was right:

“You can always count on Americans to do the right thing — after they’ve tried everything else.”

Harsh?  Yes.  Frustrated?  Yes.  We can do better than this.