Are You Ready For The Democrats To Start Running Your Health Care America?
Because mandated health insurance is now, officially, on the agenda.
Without waiting for President-elect Barack Obama, Senator Max Baucus, the chairman of the Finance Committee, will unveil a detailed blueprint on Wednesday to guarantee health insurance for all Americans by facilitating sales of private insurance, expanding Medicaid and Medicare, and requiring most employers to provide or pay for health benefits.
Aides to Mr. Obama said they welcomed the Congressional efforts, had encouraged Congress to take the lead and still considered health care a top priority, despite the urgent need to address huge problems afflicting the economy. . . .
Mr. Baucus would create a nationwide marketplace, a “health insurance exchange,” where people could compare and buy insurance policies. The options would include private insurance policies and a new public plan similar to Medicare. Insurers could no longer deny coverage to people who had been sick. Congress would also limit insurers’ ability to charge higher premiums because of a person’s age or prior illness.
So basically we’re going to keep the current system and drain what little choice there is in the system now out. And then we’ll require that insurance companies not only have to cover high-risk people who will likely have costly medical bills, we’ll also make sure they can’t charge those people more.
Because price controls always work out well, right?
And then, finally, we’ll establish yet another health care entitlement modeling it after Medicare. Because we all know what a success that program has been.
What amazes me is that anyone thinks this is a good idea. Remember when California, under Governor Davis, instituted price controls on energy producers? The end result of that was rolling blackouts. Why should we expect any different result from price controls on health coverage?
Also, why can’t people choose to opt-out of health insurance altogether if they want to? Mandating coverage is going to be a costly reality for a lot of young people. I imagine it’s going to drive a lot of people onto government-provided health care coverage, which may be the whole point in this exercise. But with government-run health care programs like Medicare and Medicaid already slouching towards insolvency, is this really what we need right now? More people dependent on the government for health care?
Why don’t we look at ways to empower individuals to pay for their own health care? Because the problem with our health care system is a lack of choice, not a lack of availability. If we made individuals responsible for their own health care, and did away with the system where they were dependent on an employer or the government to pay for it, we’d not only see health care prices go down we’d also see more hospitals and clinics pop up to provide more choice.
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WOOF
