One wonders if anybody is really happy with the state of healthcare today.
Patients hate it. Doctors hate it. Insurers probably don’t enjoy the invective aimed their way by angry customers who feel backstabbed by increasingly high premiums and, it seems, increasingly poorer coverage.
It’s enough to make anybody angry.
Some say the problem is greed. Others blame the situation on excessive government interference in what they argue should be a free-market enterprise. Still others blame lawsuits that have caused malpractice insurance rates to skyrocket, and driven medical costs up to compensate. Then there are those who blame illegal aliens and the patients who, as required by law, get emergency care, whether or not they are going to pay for it,while the rest of us foot the bill. Other arguments point to the costs of what some call excessive preservation of life, the lack of basic medical triage services that shouldn’t require the presence of a doctor, the cost of drug advertising that jacks up prices, etc. etc.
Those of us who pay the monstrous health insurance premiums required to pay for medical care these days would love it if there were a way to keep healthcare from costing us a fourth of the average family’s yearly income. It cripples employers. It stifles the self-employed €“ at least those who even attempt to afford insurance.
It’s a mess. And President Obama intends to fix it. As he told us in his speech last week, he apparently believes that his administration can put together a plan that will ensure quality medical care for everyone.
Obama believes he can ensure continued coverage for Americans who have health coverage today through a combination of making larger employers pay, using self insurance, Medicare and Veterans Administration programs in a way that would help small businesses, the uninsured and those who have lost their coverage to afford quality coverage.
If we thought he could that, we’d be ecstatic. But we have serious doubts.
We can’t in the space available here, flesh out every argument for or against the president’s stated goals.
We can only say that if we believe government can solve this problem, then we have to ignore the fact that government €“ neither the Republicans nor the Democrats €“ have been able to solve a much simpler problem: Social Security.
Social Security is simply an investment plan, much simpler than weighing out medical decisions on an individual basis for millions of Americans. It’s been mismanaged for nearly 75 years to the point that no rational adult under the age of 60 should have much faith that it will deliver much of anything for him or her at retirement.
It’s a mess and it has been for decades. Both Republicans and Democrats, despite all the sweet talk and large promises over the years, have been unable to turn Social Security around and make it work.
So how will ratcheting up the federal bureaucracy, with all its obvious inefficiencies and waste, solve our healthcare problems? Answer: It won’t.
We don’t mean to be pessimistic here, just realistic.
Our nation has plenty of problems, and some of them stem from misguided desires to do the right thing. Helping people stay alive is the right thing, as a general rule. A century ago, churches established many hospitals because they were concerned about the need for healthcare, particularly for the poor. Most of those organizations are now secularized and, thanks to some combination of the issues listed at the beginning of this editorial, costs have skyrocketed.
Our leaders justifiably want to fix this problem. Our local congressional delegation, particularly Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley and Congressman Peter DeFazio, believe that Obama’s proposed system is the way to go.
DeFazio said after Obama’s speech last Wednesday that the president “finally stepped up to the plate and outlined a path to Congress for a plan that would provide affordable healthcare for all Americans.
“It is a plan to reign in abusive insurance industry practices and eliminate fraud and abuse in the healthcare system. It’s a challenge to Congress to re-set the debate; simplify and improve the existing legislation and deliver on a long delayed promise of affordable, quality health care coverage for all Americans.
“We’ve been waiting 100 years; we shouldn’t have to wait any longer.”
The problem indeed needs to be fixed. But what critics describe as a naïve, overly optimistic, socialized approach isn’t going to fix it.
There certainly could be a solution to this but it won’t be an easy one because the problem has become incredibly complex.
The first thing that needs to happen is that our two major parties need to stop pointing fingers and yelling in accusatory terms about how the other side is full of something that can’t be mentioned here. Civility has been lacking on both sides.
Liberals, many of whom are veteran protesters themselves, need to stop accusing the skeptical, if not angry, sign-bearing constituents at town meetings as somehow “Un-American.”
On the other hand, conservatives who have deep concerns about Obama’s proposals need to behave.
South Carolina Republican Congressman Joe Wilson’s shout of “You lie!” as the president spoke to the joint session of Congress on Wednesday was out of line. Maybe Obama is stretching the truth to make the sale. Many considered people, who are not yelling and pointing fingers, think so. Wilson should have responded at another time than while the president was trying to talk. This isn’t the British Parliament.
The healthcare debate needs to be carried out with respect on both sides, not with antipathy and acrimony, or the “solution” we end up with will be far, far worse than the problems we have now.