Nathan Scandella (personal)

Universal Health Care Insurance

Another of the issues that generally comes up at election time is that of health care. Unless you live in a bubble, you probably know that we, in the US, pay more for health care than any other industrialized nation. While we probably have the best in the world when it comes to plastic surgery, and esoteric implants of pig parts into humans, everybody who goes to the doctor probably knows that the majority of our health care is anything but top-notch.

So, every election season, candidates talk about needing to fix this system. My personal belief is that we should focus our attention on building a time machine, and go back in time far enough to erase Richard Nixon from the history books, thereby issuing a pre-emptive strike at the HMO industry. But, since that's not technically "possible", let's consider a real alternative that is up for discussion.

Barack Obama, and others, have proposed an insurance system whereby people who don't currently have coverage could participate in the same plans that existing federal employees have. This idea immediately conjures up images of socialism for conservatives, and they love to cry foul when it comes to the idea for paying for poor peoples' medical care. In this case, I'm actually somewhat sympathetic to their concern. Unfortunately, I have news for them:

They are already paying for poor peoples' health care!!!

In this country, if you go to the emergency room in a hospital, you cannot be denied service for your inability to pay. So what happens is that poor people without health insurance don't go to the doctor when they have a minor illness. Frequently, that untreated illness does not go away on its own, and they get worse. Forced to get care for their condition, they now go to the emergency room. Since the hospital must provide service, but can't collect any payment, that cost is absorbed. Now, the rest of us, who do pay our bills (either directly, or via an insurer), get to reimburse the hospitals and insurance companies for those unpaid bills. Gotcha! You paid for it. Good, hardworking taxpayers with health insurance are already footing the bill for the uninsured.

So, asking the government (via increased taxes) to put these uninsured persons on their plan is simply changing the way we all subsidize health care for the poor. But, it's actually better than that. Remember that thing about an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure? Well, it's important here. With government-provided health insurance, the poor would be able to go to the doctor when they have a normal illness, and not have to wait to ultimately get treated in an emergency room. And the cost to provide service in a doctor's office, or clinic, is vastly cheaper than in an emergency room. No need to have a triage nurse doing what could have been handled with a prescription of penicillin a couple weeks earlier. So, the rest of us are still stuck subsidizing health care for the poor, but we're now doing it in a way that's both cheaper for us, and keeps the patient in better health, too. And there, my friends, is The Rub.

This result may be counterintuitive, especially for conservatives. But, it makes sense, given the way our health care system currently works. It's not socialized medicine. The same private doctors and nurses still provided the care. Only the insurance is handled by the government, and then only for people who previously did not have coverage. And if you think the government can't even be trusted to handle health care insurance efficiently, do your homework on the Medicare system. It works, and by most measures, it beats the pants off of private insurers. Oh, and it has lower overhead:

http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2008/08/28/medicare-for-all-why-we-should-say-yes-not-yes-but/

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1316/is_3_31/ai_54098106/pg_5

http://www.pnhp.org/news/2008/july/happy_birthday_medic.php

So, whether you're a welfare-loving liberal, or a tight-wad fiscal conservative, this idea is simply the right thing to do.

Posted at 10:09PM Oct 29, 2008 by Nathan in Politics  |  Comments[1]