Fear of Health Care

Well as the famous wit H.L. Mencken said

"No one in this world has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby."
H. L. Mencken

The blowhards and demagogues have gotten the masses stirred up and scared so that they will once again shoot themselves in the foot. The fact that Europe has by and large better, cheaper and more comprehensive health care than we do is too sophisticated a notion for most Americans. Our economy, our environment and our education systems are in decline because we are obsessed with lowering taxes to the point that we will be a third world country. Hey I know, let's blame all the illegal immigrants!

The focus of this debate should be 3-pronged: (1) payer (which is where all the focus is); (2) delivery - i.e. federal? State? County? - how/where administered? method of providing service and paying providers; and (3) immigration. There must be a discussion if to provide, and if so, how to provide, health care for millions of illegal immigrants. This third "prong" of discussion is "the elephant in the living room" that neither political party has been willing to address.

See http://www.independent.com/news/2009/sep...

What a well written, easy to understand "saga!"
Gary adams you are to be commended for writing the column & it would be so very wonderful for all to see it & digest it.
You paid a high price for the lack of medical attention which relied on pay before you play!
Here's hoping you have a calm, medical free rest of your life.
Here's hoping that we americans also have a future that is free of the stranglehold we currently have from insurance companies.

People are not in fear of heatlh care but GOVERNMENT RUN health care. Everyone wants people to be covered but why not fix the system we have instead of creating a 1.4 trillion monstroscity? Government is not the answer. Medicare and Social Security are in the red losing billions of dollars every year. Social Security will be bankrupt in a few years. Why are people so willing to give away their power and choices to a government? I don't care if it's a republican or democrat government, we should never let government run our lives. And FYI, let's drop the Bush blame game. This is Obama's administration now.

I share sandrose's feelings about Gary's letter. Very well written. Even though a third of his heart may have been damaged while waiting for care in the hospital, its clear the author's brain is functioning perfectly.

SBsportsDiva: the VA is government run healthcare (unlike single-payer as proposed in this country which is simply publicly funded healthcare) as the government both pays for and runs the healthcare delivery system. Contrary to popular belief, it is the best healthcare system in the world (although getting into it can still be a problem), delivering healthcare to a very needy population at very low cost.

http://healthcare.change.org/blog/view/t...

Publicly funded self-insurance is a far cry from "government run", in fact the agency that handles all of the billing doesn't even need to be a government agency. Every other wealthy nation has some form of public healthcare coverage, spends far less than we do, has no bankruptcy due to medical costs, and covers everyone. What's so scary about that?

sbron - Simply denying illegal immigrants health coverage in a law will do nothing to solve the problem you refer to other than satisfying some constituents. Doctors take an oath upon receiving their license to serve any person in need care regardless of their ability to pay (Sadly, as this letter shows, this hasn't always been the case).

Thus, if an undocumented immigrant were to wonder into a hospital with a serious need no MD could ethically deny them health care regardless of the laws on the books. Your 3rd prong of discussion would do little to nothing to actually save the system money because the written laws would directly contradict the ethical oath that all doctors take. Undocumented immigrants would continue to receive health care and tax payers (including undocumented immigrants who also pay taxes by the way) would continue to pay for their care. The real "elephant in the room" is our broken and disgraceful immigration system rather than the people (often demonized) who are living here and simply trying to make a living.

One fact that critics of private health insurance, like Mr. Adams, seem to miss is that private insurers are heavily regulated. Thus, CEOs do not have the ability to simply "decide that millions of people be denied insurance so their profit margin moves up". Insurers operate within very narrow ranges set by state insurance commissions, and are required by law to pay out certain percentages of the premiums they have collected based on actuarial projections. The same facts would be true of any publicly-run system that was not run into the ground.

The main proposals today would expand coverage to people who for various reasons, e.g., preexisting conditions or lack of ability to pay, as a group would receive more in benefits that their contributions via premiums. There is no doubt that all such proposals will drive costs up significantly for people currently in the health insurance system.

The real "elephant in the room" is how are we going to pay for that? Are middle income people ready to pay significantly higher premiums? Are young people ready to be forced to participate, even though they are healthy? Are we ready to collect taxes to inject into the system, thus using the strong arm of the state to coerce financial support? Perhaps. But little of the current debate seems to move toward achieving consensus; it's all partisan rabble-rousing on both sides.

It does seem unlikely that a consensus will be reached regarding health care reform, but does that matter? We appear to have collectively lost the ability to discuss the issue rationally. Maybe it's because consensus didn't matter to the previous administration (I know, SBSportsDiva they're gone). They made big decisions regardless of public support (e.g., war, stem cell research, gay rights). The Bush administration achieved consensus through the power of veto, creative storytelling and by imbuing the nation with a specific partisan or biased belief or point of view...um...which is, oddly enough, the definition of indoctrination.

Here's a go at discussing the issue irrationally: Maybe Obama should claim that the private insurance companies are housing "weapons of medical destruction" and order a preemptive strike on Kaiser Permanente and the insuran...uh...insurgents, Obama will be vindicated and the nation will reap the rewards of making the "patriotic" choice to support the "war on payors". That's it. Obama just needs to figure out how to turn this into a war! American's will undoubtedly support it for a few years, slowly lose interest and eventually claim that they never supported it in the first place.

Unfortunately, the author's story has become one all too common within our country. Somebody has to run our healthcare. It seems hypocritical to allow 'private' health corporations into our lives and denounce the government for wanting to provide. What's the difference? Oh yeah, the government won't run it for profit.
'And FYI, let's drop the Bush blame game. This is Obama's administration now.' and, oh, FYI, Bush will be blamed for all he is guilty of until he pays for his crimes.

Yes, I've heard the VA is a well run system (though not without problems). So, open it up to the rest of us!

“I quit when medicine was placed under State control, some years, ago…..Do you know what it takes to perform a brain operation? Do you know the kind of skill it demands, and the years of passionate, merciless, excruciating, devotion that go to acquire that skill? That was what I would not place at the disposal of men whose sole qualification to rule me was their capacity to spout the fraudulent generalities that got them elected to the privilege of enforcing their wishes at the point of a gun. I would not let them dictate the purpose for which my years of study had been spent, or the conditions of my work, or my choice of patients, or the amount of my reward. I observed that in all the discussions that preceded the enslavement of medicine, men discussed everything – except the desires of the doctors. Men considered only the ‘welfare’ of the patients, with no thought for those who were to provide it. That a doctor should have any right, desire or choice in the matter, was regarded as irrelevant selfishness; his is not to choose, they said, only ‘to serve.’ That a man who’s willing to work under compulsion is too dangerous a brute to entrust with a job in the stockyards - never occurred to those who proposed to help the sick by making life impossible for the healthy. I have often wondered at the smugness with which people assert their right to enslave me, to control my work, to force my will, to violate my conscience, to stifle my mind – yet what is it that they expect to depend on, when they lie on an operating table under my hands? Their moral code has taught them to believe that it is safe to rely on the virtue of their victims. Well, that is the virtue I have withdrawn. Let them discover the kind of doctors that their system will now produce. Let them discover, in their operating rooms ad hospital wards, that it is not safe to place their lives in the hands of a man whose life they have throttled. It is not safe, if he is the sort of man who resents it – and still less safe, if he is the sort who doesn’t.”

From Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand

ONCE UPON A TIME ... Ayn Rand's "philosophy of objectivism" was considered radical and not worth reading. The same was said about "The True Believer" work by San Francisco Bat Area longshoreman Eric Hoffer whose work was absolutely forbidden on most college and university campuses decades ago - solely because "he had no college degree"! [Another 'wrap' on Hoffer - He hung out at an Oakland bar with East Bay dock workers! WOW, that's guaranteed not to get invited to those 'tony' UC Berkeley intelligentsia white wine and brie fests, right]? In retrospect, however, the quote above from "Atlas Shrugged" now reads as if history stood still - while Ayn Rand knew all along the direction we had been heading! From Walt Kelley's prescient Vietnam War/Era POGO cartoon series = I give you Albert the Alligator = "We is met the enemy, and he is us"!

"Atlas Shrugged" is a novel. A book of fiction!

And guess who was part of Ayn Rand's "collective" during the 1950's? None other than Alan Greenspan! Yep, the free-market Libertarian who brought you the financial collapse of 2008-2009. How much humble pie has that guy eaten lately?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/24/busine...

Idealogically, Libertarians and others who look to Ayn Rand for inspiration sell themselves as rationalists. But I think its just so much pseudo-intellectual cover for greed and selfishness.

"The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money" - Margaret Thatcher.

Please don't MAKE me pay for YOU!