People read the paper, get tweets and surf the blogs about medical care and costs without really understanding the impact of what they read. I imagine it’s a bit like a blind man describing an elephant.
The Washington Post has an article today about the Obama plan to change the way we look at health care as part of his plan to reshape the medical world as we know it.
The article talks about moving costs to the private sector, as if that was something new. I’d ask the writer of the article how we as taxpayers, can tell the difference between the private and public sectors when we pay health care premiums on the one hand and then get the bill for every public program in the form of more taxes?
The Post goes on to say: “The challenge is that the administration and Congress are trying to extend medical coverage to the uninsured without increasing the federal budget deficit over the next decade. As a result, they are bound by the budgetary scoring process — meaning they must come up with solutions that can predictably and measurably reduce federal outlays.”
Reduced payments by the government mean more cost to individuals. Can’t everyone see that if private insurance has to bear more of the costs, the premiums will go up to all of us, or you will be paying more out of pocket costs? Anyone who is naïve enough to believe that there is some magic fairy at their employer or in government that has a buried stash of cash to pay for all of this so we, as humble taxpayers don’t have to pay for it is living in Oz.
And while were on the subject, it is a fact that there is a cost to all of us for health care. If you are fortunate enough to have all your fringe benefits paid by your employer, understand that your compensation package (salary and benefits) adjusts to compensate for the shifting of costs, and your total package is no greater than a peer group employee who may pay a share of their benefits. They would predictably have more salary range to make up for what they pay for benefits. Health care, dental and disability coverage and the rest of the benefits, are computed into the total compensation package. Ask your HR department.
And remember that all the health care reform, including providing coverage for those how can’t get it now, will come with a cost. When you read that the government is paying those costs, insert your name where it says government. Because the plain fact is we pay every cost, plus a profit for the insurance companies, and the interest on the debt incurred by Uncle Sam on what he borrows to pay for so called government benefits.
Repeat after me. There is no free lunch.
What we can do is re-examine our attitude toward end of life medical care for a start. Typically, thousands of dollars are spent for care during the last few months or weeks of a chronic illness or aging. We see examples all the time of rushing someone to the hospital that is terminally ill or failing due to age related issues, and bringing them back from the brink, but for what reason? So that they can suffer a few more days or weeks?
What kind of gift is that for someone you love? And the cost involved is horrible in both money and resetting the grief clock to run a little longer.
There is a lot of new medicine and treatments that allow us to live longer. But until our end of life ethics catch up with these advances we will wallow in delusion and self pity as the costs climb out of sight.
We also must decide just how far we go in trying to make people well. We have to start to measure the cost against the predictable results. People die and people get old. We can’t continue to offer a blank check to our health care providers. Just how many new drugs come on the market to reset the patent clock, so that profits can continue to fund more R & D for more drugs? Why should doctors have such obscene debt to pay off, causing increased medical costs to all of us? Why should we allow a legal process that costs millions of dollars in legal fees without the guarantee of impartial compensation?
So, the message here is that we have 535 people in Congress and several dozen more in the White House joining with all the fine folks in our particular state and city making plans to spend part of your income to pay for their plans. And those costs carry forward year after year.
I believe we should all pay our share. I also believe that the media and so called experts should stop acting like we won’t have to pay the entire bill for what they decide is good for America. In my area, it starts with Mark Eisenberg, goes to Jack Franks and Melissa Bean, then to Roland Burris and Dick Durbin.
I’d settle for the ability to be heard and not patronized. I’d ask to be treated as an adult, one of many who understand that there is no easy fix to this mess, other than reasonable people putting aside the rhetoric and slight of hand to instead face these problems with honesty and dedication.
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