Healthcare Economy

Americans are at “the fork in the road” now with Healthcare Reform or Insurance Reform or what the take (spin) for selling the legislation to the American Public will be for tomorrow’s speeches, press conferences and headlines. Each one will proclaim “Somebody is lying and it is not me!” “Read the legislation!” or “There is no legislation”, how can we read it?”

Just for the sake of trying to understand one piece of the debate, consider the number 47,000,000. That seems small compared to the trillions we have been hearing about over and over but 47,000,000 is the number that those clamoring for the current legislation that has been put before the congress is using to describe “Un-insured Americans”. When broken down to its roots and components, what is in that number?

1. Un documented Americans or Illegal Immigrants (20,000,000);
2. Individuals who have healthcare insurance available but chose not to have it (10,000,000);
3. Those who are without employment and either cannot afford individual policies or are uninsurable (17,000,000).

That 17,000,000 represents a much more manageable number then the spun number, 47,000,000. In fact, it makes the debate seem ridiculously one sided and expensive. So we are considering in Washington that our entire system needs to be thrown out and overhauled for 17,000,000 uninsured citizens thus disrupting the way healthcare is accessed, diagnosed, treated and reimbursed?

Please don’t take this in the wrong light. Those 17,000,000 citizens need attention and deserve to be cared for in a country with the greatest healthcare capabilities in the world but not by “Throwing the Baby out with the Bathwater.” We do not need to “Boil the Ocean” to do this. (Have I included enough clichés?) But we do understand this, especially the professionals, clinicians, physicians and technology specialists that make our healthcare system quality, safety and access what it is today.

Let us consider then addressing the real issues;

Make healthcare affordable for the 17,000,000 that need to be provide the same care by:

1.Addressing Torte Reform;
2.Elimination of Fraud and Abuse in those programs already in place like Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, WIC, American Disabilities Act, Veteran Administration, others;
3.Concentrating on massive campaigns to address illegal immigration in a civil and humane way;
4 Creating additional efforts for signing that percentage of eligible Americans up for Medicaid, available plans;
5.Changing the laws that allow individuals to have portable insurance that is owned and managed individually.

Mostly, for the 85% of Americans who are happy with their current healthcare plans and flexibilities to choose, leave them alone!!  Government interventions and management of our health is a dangerous option and tears at the fabric of American culture and rights we have preserved for 233 years.