Sunday, May 3, 2009

Do We Really Have a Health Care ‘Insurance’ System in America or Not?

Since you are about to get deluged by the golden promises of the Obama guaranteed health insurance coverage, we think it is important to lay out some of the basics about health care in America before it gets further disfigured by the new legislation.

You always get the political spin on ‘health care this’ or ‘health care that’ but hardly ever do you get a global perspective on 1) why is the American health care system so screwed up in the first place and 2) what can reasonably be done about it so that my family and I can continue to use the doctors we want to use and not have some bureaucrat in Washington tell me what I can or can not do to keep my body healthy?

We have already laid out the absolute best way, no questions asked or debates made, to drive out about $1 trillion in health care costs in America. All of us citizens would: 1) eat better; 2) exercise more; 3) stop smoking and 4) stop drinking so much alcohol (and sweetened soft drinks and power waters to boot).[ 1]

That is the basis of having a democratic republic in the first place: each individual citizen has some sense of personal responsibility, duty and honor to take care of themselves and the families first and have the civic-mindedness to help one another in time of need.

If President Obama really wants to move the needle on true health care reform, he would issue a challenge to all of American people to live healthier lives first and foremost as part of a great national challenge.

Consider this our generation’s “Make America Beautiful” campaign (I can almost hear President Lyndon Baines Johnson's wife, Lady Bird Johnson saying: “Plant a bush, a tree or a shhhrrrruuuuuub!”in about 4 syllables)

Here is one of the primary reasons why we have the current health care crisis in America: If your premiums are paid for, mostly or in part, by someone else such as a company or Medicare, you will tend to use more of the health care plan’s services.

In truth of fact, one of the main reasons why the Detroit automakers are all filing for bankruptcy is because of the overly expensive and extensive health care plans that were guaranteed to all past, present and future employees and retirees. I saw a couple of their health plans in Washington during hearings that were 100% paid for by GM or Ford; no co-pays or deductibles for the employees, no limits on covered services(elective plastic surgery, for example, was totally covered, unlike most other private plans)…and guaranteed for life.

If I had my health care plan 100% covered by GM or Ford, and I did not ever have to pay any co-pays or deductibles, I’d go to visit the doctor every time I had a sniffle or a hangnail! It would be like getting a season’s pass at Kings Dominion or Walt Disney World, all paid for by someone else!

No wonder they are filing for bankruptcy right and left! There is more health care cost built into every US automobile made in America today than steel nowadays…you can look that up yourself.

We are all humans, after all, and self-preservation is at the top of our survival DNA instincts. And ‘getting something for nothing’ is always better than having to pay for it, don’t you agree?

In America today, we have more of an “employer-paid” (and therefore, 'tax-deductible’) ‘pre-paid’ healthcare plan system than a true ‘health insurance’ system in the traditional sense of the words.

And all of that pre-paid health care mindset flows through to the federal health care programs, Medicare and Medicaid as well. With overall health care cost inflation going up 15% per year, Medicare and Medicaid follow suit and consume more and more of the overall federal government pie each and every year. Rampant health care inflation is also crowding out the defense budget as well.

Consider this the first step towards 'health care comprehension independence' for you and your household. At least you won’t be hornswoggled or taken as a dope by the politicians next time you hear them promise “universal coverage at no extra cost to you…..unless you are a millionaire” or something absurd like that.

There ain’t no thing as a free lunch…or free universal health care, you can bet on that.

[1] http://www.telemachusleaps.com/2009/03/fat-drunk-and-stupid-is-no-way-to-go.html

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