Monday, October 27, 2008

My thoughts on health care

As promised, here are my thoughts on the health care issue.

Many years ago, I was a staunch believer in personal responsibility where health care and health insurance are concerned. I reasoned that it is not right for a person to go along through life, "self insuring" as long as she or he is young and healthy, and then suddenly expect others to pay her or his way once the first signs of aging and disease begin. I still believe that.

However, the more I study this issue, the more I have come to realize that there is a whole segment of the American public -- many of whom WORK for a living and just scrape by -- for whom the concept of health insurance doesn't work. They simply can't afford it. And I'm not talking about only those people whose income is below that artificial line that we officially call "poverty". I'm talking about people who feel that they can choose to buy food or insurance. They can buy secondhand clothes and shoes for their kids, or they can buy insurance. I believe I have a moral obligation to do what I can to help those people.

Then there are those who can't get insurance because of what we call "Pre-Existing Conditions". Insurance companies won't cover them because to do so would threaten their entire block of business. I would be happy to explain this further if anyone is truly looking for an explanation, but for now I'll leave it right there. Some of these people are the ones I talked about in the first paragraph. They were initially out of the system by choice, and now they cannot get in. However, others may have lost their coverage because of a job change or similar circumstance. These, too, I feel need assistance and as it is impossible to sort out who may be deserving and who may not be, we'll have to err on the side of including them all.

To cover these people, there is going to be a cost. Perhaps a portion of the cost could be borne by the individuals themselves, if they have the means. However, the bulk of the cost will have to be picked up by the taxpayer.

Meanwhile, for those with insurance, costs keep going higher and higher. I keep thinking that they can't continue to increase forever, but except for a few years in the late 90's (if memory serves correctly) they have certainly been rising for my entire adult life. This too needs to be addressed, and the means of addressing it may very well be a fundamental change in the current system. We may in fact need to turn the system on end and build a new one from the ground up.

More tomorrow...

Saturday, October 25, 2008

A Halloween Link

The internetmonk has some things to say about Halloween, and I heartily agree.

I'll get back to politics tomorrow. Really.

PS, I got that link from this blog.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Presidential Proposals

Just in case anyone is really reading this, I thought I'd post a brief summary of the presidential health care proposals. This is off the top of my head, and comes mostly from a professional meeting I attended this week. The speakers were campaign workers for each candidate.

Obama's plan: Obama's plan is NOT universal health insurance, as some have stated. If you have health insurance already, great, you can keep it. The "national plan" that Obama is proposing is not intended to cover everyone, but to give the uninsured an opportunity to purchase comprehensive coverage at an affordable price.

There are other things, changing laws which might help reduce the cost of prescription drugs, setting up a new government agency to oversee the whole thing, subsidies for the poor or those whose coverage is very expensive due to pre-existing conditions, etc., mandated coverage for children, etc.

My beef with Obama's plan? He contends this is all going to save us money. When questioned on this point, the representative stated that the prescription drug savings would be the source of the savings. OK, she said "A" source, but she didn't offer up any alternatives. IS HE SERIOUS? When is the last time a government agency was created and American taxpayers SAVED money?

I liked a lot of the Obama plan. But I wish he would be up front with us about the true cost, and how he intends to fund this thing.

McCain's Plan: McCain's plan does NOT do away with employer sponsored health plans, as some have suggested. NOR does it take away the tax favored status of such plans. It does change the way the tax status is handled. By making it a tax CREDIT, those with employer sponsored coverage may well take home less in their paychecks, but at the end of the year they would owe less in taxes. Surely the withholding tables would be adjusted to fix this. I venture that many people currently covered would see little change, although some of us would find ourselves paying taxes on a portion of that premium that is currently sheltered.

McCain also expands the tax credit to folks who buy health insurance on their own. Currently, if you buy your own coverage, you only get a tax break if your premiums plus any out of pocket expenses exceed a certain percentage each year. (I think it's 7.5%, but I'm not positive.) This is a huge break to those already purchasing individual coverage, but I'm not sure it's enough to convince the "working uninsured" to purchase coverage. I mean, it basically amounts to a 15% "discount" on the cost of the coverage (assuming a 15% tax bracket) and with the cost of individual coverage being so high, is this really much of an incentive?

My take: will have to wait a day, b/c it's late and my alarm clock is going haywire and I can sense my husband's tension all the way from the other end of the house.