Healthcare Economy

So many of the "rights" we enjoy as Americans are not defined in the plain language of the Constitution. For example, the Constitution does not provide for a "right to privacy," and yet via the various Supreme Court decisions (Griswold, v. Connecticut, Lawrence v. Texas, Roe v. Wade), privacy is now held as a very dear right by nearly all Americans. Healthcare is not defined as a "right" in the Constitution, but life is a right, and when life is threatened the Constitution grants Americans certain means of protecting it. Healthcare is nothing more than an extension of the right to life and liberty.

When did it become an American value that healthcare providers could bankrupt a person with a serious health condition simply because their insurer decided not to cover their treatment? Is our free market system so fragile that we cannot tolerate an experiment to provide healthcare to those whom the free market has thus far ignored? Are we not entitled as the ultimate governors of this land to establish the rules of the marketplace, and would not a universal health insurance system provide the necessary governance that appears to be lacking in the industry to date?

Gary,

“I am sure that your healthcare was paid for by the health care plan offered by your employer as a benefit. It was the terms of that plan which allowed you to move from one medical provider to another. In the discussion of universal health care, it has always been a given that those who are covered by an employer plan or another plan for which they are paying themselves would not be directed in their health care options to any greater extent than they currently *would be* (are). As you are aware, many employees do not have the option of employer-provided health care, and cannot afford the very expensive option of self-insurance, particularly in the case of an existing condition. For these people, a public health care plan would offer them access to *health* (medical) care before they find themselves in an emergency room. I do agree that the existence of an Electronic Health Record would make a significant difference in the delivery of health care. The U.S. Veteran's Administration has an integrated Electronic Health Record system that means a veteran can go to any veteran health care facility and health care personnel can immediately access their health care records. As an IT professional I also recognize*d* the considerable amount of work and money it would take to put a U.S-wide electronic health care record standard in place and convert the remarkably diverse existing electronic and hard copy health care records to such a standard.”

No, choices in Health care are not an American Right. There is nothing in the constitution or the laws that give you a right to choose health care or even to have it. Right now, you (or your employer) forms a contract with an insurance company and you get health care under terms defined in that contract. Often people learn too late that the fine print in the contract is very restrictive and does not cover every care option that you thought was available.

In most cases, you don't get full benefits AND a choice of doctors. The insurance company has doctors under contract and they do not pay back as much for other doctors. Are these better doctors? No, not necessarily, they are doctors under "Capitation contracts" with the insurer. They are rewarded for spending less of the insurers money and penalized for spending more. In some cases, they can loose the contract and this is a business disaster for the doctor. You may not even know all your choices because your doctor will not present them to you in order to reap the benefits of capitation.

Health insurance is enormously profitable as a business. It is also interesting that the "Blue Dog Democrats" who claim to be saving American tax payers and blocking the "Public Option" are also THE MOST heavily supported by the insurance companies of everyone in Congress. To say the least, their hearts are not pure.

I think Technology will be helpful introducing efficiencies but I also think the public option will help keep the insurance companies honest. It must be deficit neutral over a decade, as the President has said, but it must happen. Consider that the USPS is a public option over private carriers such as FedEx and UPS. You can get private security guards if you like even though there are public cops. There are all sorts of public option examples in which the option is self funded or gets some tax payer money for functions in the public interest that are not so profitable.

I fear that the Blue Dogs are wearing down what could have been a strong reform. I think we need to get back to what was originally proposed which also includes a deficit neutral approach, as the president has stated.

Gary;

I have choices in healthcare, but my insurer also informs me of their choice. I can follow their choice or I can pay my own way.

Gary, it is also a Russian thing and a French thing, etc... The trick is that those Russian/sFrench who want a choice come to America. ;) Well, Russia does have private clinics now, but it's pharma industry cannot match that of USA. Also, America has been taken over by those who think that health care is a right.

Thank you for the postings thus far. A point I want to make after reading all of these great answers is that technologies that improve the "Health Care" for each of us, meaning the ways in which we are treated with "Evidence Based Medicine" and protocols for Wellness and Disease management are necessary no matter how the private sector or government administer coverage. It will be about Access to, Quality of and Cost of care.

After the politics have dictated the direction our system will take we will still require these control mechanisms to be in place.

Keep the great postings coming!!!