Where's the alternative solution?

As if we didn't hear/read enough about it already...another post on healthcare! This is a web response I wrote to Joe Henke's blog on The Next Right, who gave a short post providing some alternative solutions to the current healthcare bill. I actually think the proposed two solutions were pretty good, though no one in Congress on either side of the aisle would vote for them. And being a right site, there were the usual Obamacare comments, which are getting tiresome, so I addressed them too. I'm sure my post will be blasted as I am a facist, socialist, commie who hates America (rolls eyes here).

Anyway, here's the post:

To the original author of this post, I agree. I think there needs to be a safety net for catastrophic healthcare. A degenerative disease like MS or cancer can deplete the savings of even some of the wealthiest citizens in the U.S. I do agree with Kordo though in that if a proposal like that were made, there would be a concession towards the poor of the country. I'm not sure if you could get around that nor am I sure that you would want to. If nothing else, it would perpetuate the stereotype that Republicans only care about the rich and don't give a damn about the poor.

Personally, I don't think the government is out of line when they require citizens to have health insurance. Most states require every driver to have auto insurance. I live in Tennessee, which is a no-fault state. You are required by law to have auto insurance if you drive a vehicle. The main goal being that insurance costs can stay down if mostly everyone is insured.

Having worked in healthcare billing, the 2 biggest costs to hospitals were 1) the uninsured, and 2) the patients who decided to file a frivolous lawsuit, either with the hospital itself or with a third party. In fact, I'd venture to say (he says facetiously) that if we got rid of the damn lawyers and uninsured, our healthcare system would be okay. (kidding....sort of...)

As far as having a free market...healthcare is not a free market, has never been a free market, and never will be a free market. All insurance prices are state mandated. All insurance companies make "contractual agreements" (i.e. bribes) to hospital systems to funnel their insureds to those specific doctors, hospitals, and labs (i.e. "in network"). If it were a true free market, don't you think that prices of medical services would be posted? (You just try to ask a doctor how much a lab test will cost, how much an MRI will cost). Where's the price competition? I haven't seen advertisements for hospitals that have more affordable emergency room services than the other guy, have you?

So for those bemoaning the loss of a free market system, you should've been crying over it in the late 60's, early 70's, because that's when the insurance companies took over our healthcare system, and they've been running ever since. So now the only choice that patients get to make is what insurance company they can have, and believe me, as a now full time student trying to get single payer private health insurance, ($3500 of my puny income has to be dedicated to my premiums and my deductible before my insurance ever kicks in), that's not much of a choice.

The only people who are benefiting from the current healthcare system are insurance companies. The hospitals aren't. The insurance companies are denying claims at a more frequent rate. They have a department of their company solely devoted to denying claims, which then makes it the patient's responsibility. Anytime we had to send a bill to the patient, it was considered a lost cause. Patients don't/can't pay the bill. So the hospitals write off bigger and bigger losses every year. And the patients declare bankruptcy, default on the medical debt, and drop/get dropped from their insurance carrier. Which then makes everyone else's rates increase and coverage decrease. This system doesn't work, plain and simple.

So while I don't agree with most aspects of Obama's healthcare plan (it still doesn't explain to me how it's going to pay for itself), at least it's a start. And I haven't heard a better alternative from the Right. The only things I've heard from the Right (as well as everyone else) is that Obama is Hitler incarnate, that we are now Russia, and the world is going to end.

So to all those on the Right, get your act together and come up with a counter proposal, like this author has, and add amendments to the current bill. But if you can't find any sympathy from the White House or from the voters, it's probably because you've been acting like jackasses for the past year. Oh....and get off Bill Clinton. You're just as bad as the liberals still trashing George W. Bush. George W. Bush and Bill Clinton were both lousy presidents and are no longer in power (thank god). Get over it. Move forward, please.

Signed,

The 25 year old who is paying for your Medicare and Social Security, and who will be paying your debt for the rest of his life.