In the past several months, our country has a lengthy discussion regarding the status of our healthcare. Few will say that we should do nothing in improving our healthcare system. Even so, over 80% of respondants are satisfied with the coverage they currently have. With that being said, is it really necessary to blow up the entire system by including a public government option? This Administration would like us to believe that the government option would simply apply more options to the consumer and therefore drive down costs to us, the consumer. However, with the unlimited support of the government, the public option would soon bury the private insurers with the unlimited resources. Here are a few ways in which the government plan will eventually take over.
The first issue in discussion is the fact that this new bill proposed in both houses of congress would include a mandate for every individual to be covered. This does not respond to a free market system. Using my experiences as this example. From when I went off my parents healthplan at age 18, I did not have, nor see a reason to have myself covered. I just chose simply to not carry health insurance. I'd rather spend those couple hundred dollars a month saving up for something, or even buying something.
The second issue is for small business owners. If they have a choice of insuring their employees, or paying a mandated penalty for not insuring their employees, there is no reason to think they would pay the lesser. In most cases, they would pay the reported 8% penalty of not insuring their employees in order to save money. And when this is done, these employees would then be placed in the government run program. Of course this example wouldn't be the decision of all or even most small businesses necessarily, but it would be a decision they may consider. This would be especially so if a small business was barely surviving. Anything to cut costs.
Going back to the point of the government supporting a program that competes with private companies. Even the evil insurance companies. Look at the Post Office as an example. They are losing money, hand over fist, and yet are still operating. They are getting killed by businesses as UPS and FedEx in shipping, yet they will stay afloat because they are controlled by the Federal Government. In other words, no matter how much the ship is sinking, the government will still throw billions of dollars at it...... this is because this is "their" entity.
Of course there are several likeable solutions that many would consider a great change. The first would have to do with insurers being able to compete across state lines. After all, the more choices, the better rates us, the consumer will be seeing. As it stands now, if a state only has a couple options, there won't be any price wars for your business.
The second is medical malpractice reform, otherwise known as tort reform. The medical liability that Doctors and practices have to spend is out of control. There are so many who will try to sue, no matter if it's the fault of the doctor, or not. The preventive medicine practice costs everybody. It costs the practices huge monthly expenses, which therefore gets passed down to some extent to the insurers, and then on to the consumers. If we can get a handle on this, this would surely help. When the only ones who oppose this with force is the Democrat Wing Trial Lawyers, we know there is a huge problem.
