Healthcare, Here We Come

So insurance companies like to say that the federal government won't be able to keep health care costs down, you won't be able to choose your doctor, and you'll have some bureaucrat telling the doctors what treatments they can and cannot perform on their patients. I will now explain why these arguments are wrong.

Case in point: Health Maintenance Organization's (HMO). These companies were started in the 1990's and was thought to have solved the problem of rising health costs. Groups of people would join a HMO and the organization would negotiate on behalf of the people in thier gr0up. This drove health care costs down. Why? Because doctors wanted to treat the patients. It's their job, it's how they make a living. When doctors saw the potential amount of patients they would be able to get they would take the HMO's insurance because they then had the chance to get more patients and earn more money.

So, a big group of people joined a health care plan which was able to drive costs down, sound familiar? President Obama and Democrats in Congress want to create a federal program in order to do the same thing. With close to 50 million people without health insurance in this country, the government would be able to charge less to join the federal program and negotiate for a large amount of people, driving down health care costs. Doctors will want to be involved in the government's program because once again (you guessed it!) it's how they make a living.

And for the last two arguments; as I said before doctors will want/need to be in this program because they provide a service and therefore need people to serve. There will be plenty of people who will join the government program also even if they already have insurance (unless of course they like paying all those high costs to private companies). I also do not feel threatened by a bureaucrat telling a doctor what to do. The fact of the matter is that's not their job. Their job would be to make sure people are getting the coverage they need so doctors can provide their services. Last time I checked, older people wanted to be covered by Medicare and Medicaid and I haven't heard anyone say those programs don't work.

Not to mention the new computer system passed in the last stimulous package. This will help estimate medical costs and also allow doctors to know what treatments work better then others which will also help drive costs down.

Even Wal-Mart is on board. The retail giant loves to say that now 90% of their employees have health coverage. And yes, they admit most of them are covered through government programs.

Congressman Charles Rangel yesterday announced how the Democrats plan to pay for a new federal health care plan. They will be raising taxes on individuals who earn $280,000 and up a long with couples earning $350,000 or more. The plan will raise an estimated $540 billion over ten years while the program itself is supposed to cost $1 trillion in the same amount of time.

When polled, the vast majority of American's say they are willing to pay higher taxes so everyone can receive health insurance. This plan just makes too much sense to pass up. Those who are against this program are the insurance companies who are afraid of the competition. I'm confident that health insurance will be afforded to everyone in this country. Congress wants to get something done though before the August recess, so for everyone's sake, let's hope none of them get sick.