First I am not a scholar just a self taught high school graduate who has been paying taxes for over 30 years now. Being that I have lived it I should be able to talk it. I am a Veteran of the United States Air Force, Father of three girls and a grandfather of two little ones.
I have been in business for the last 15 years in a self employed job and am moving into business owner. I feel these things qualify me to deliver this message.
After watching CSPAN on the Thursday Health Care Reform I could not help but listen to the elected officials discuss all the varying issues with the insurance problems? I felt like they were missing the key element to why they were gathered together. The talks are around how to afford health care insurance. Not health care itself but a byproduct of health care business system itself. I want to reiterate this point as the solution to the problem that is being discussed and will be passed into law soon and is not sustainable.
I also listened to Bart Stupak interview Massachusetts Blue Cross who is a profit Health Care Insurance Provider. They said they made.46% profit last year and they just increased their rates. They warned my representative that the way the system is going it will get more expensive and is on a road of not being able to sustain because of the rising costs and abuse of policy holders buying insurance when it is needed.
After listening to my districts Representative Bart Stupak, he did not appear to believe Blue Cross and was attacking them because they are a profit organization unlike the non-profit organizations who painted a different picture of a sustainable Insurance Health Care Reform. As I listened, I heard Blue Cross loud and clear when they said that if the law intended gets passed they will be out of business, and I almost saw tears come out of the eyes of the two women as they said it because you could tell they were talking about something that was very passionate and dear to them. I could tell they were scared, sorry and did not like how things are going.
Time to get real and really talk about the problem! It is not the Insurance Companies. They have done about all they can do and have done a wonderful job to this date to try to make Good Health available to the majority. Insurance companies wanted a perfect world where everyone had care and was paying into the pool to keep the cost of insurance low and affordable to all. Great plan, so why is it in so much trouble and is supposedly a private sector enterprise?
Let me put it simply; Government got involved years ago with a product called Medicaid/Medicare. I can remember when I first saw the new tax being taken out of my pay check back in the mid eighties. They called it an insurance plan when it was actually a tax funded social medicine. And only available to those who qualify! I know when the law went through back then I recognized that I live in the United States and they will not let me die because I am a citizen and cost does not matter to save me. At that time I was empowered to know I would be taken care of no matter what.
I myself have not had insurance through a job since 1982 after the first bush war. The company I worked for lost 10 contracts that year and we were laid off permanently. That company is hanging on by a shoe string right now and all their buildings are up for sale or lease. I got off the subject, but I have not had insurance since then till 1998 when the second bush let me get medical service for a co-pay through the VA for serving my country during peace time. Four years of service is giving me a life time of medical care. I love it, but I don't see how it will be able to sustain on a co-pay. So I am sure one day the rules will change through legislation and I won't have it in the future, but I am glad now as I am getting older that I do.
I feel the problem in our health care is not the insurance companies but who the insurance companies are paying. Who is that? Who is controlling the costs? It is not the insurance companies. It is obvious to me who it is and it isn't just one entity. It is a big business who can charge anything they want, create demand by scarcity and create the amount by specialty or type of service. The Hospitals, Doctors, Medical Suppliers and Pharmaceutical Companies are controlling the costs. There is no guarantee that an Insurance company can control the future or the cost of what a Medical Entity wants or feels the value of a cure is. What is the value of your health, can you put a cost on it?
I was brought up believing that Life does not have a value because it is precious. You can not put a dollar value on life. Someone came along and changed that some years ago and now we do put a value on our health, not our life. As the Medical Entities decide what costs what we will pay till the scarcity of money and clients decline. I do not see anything changing except when Medical Costs exceed what can be paid for just like most things today. As the demand increases for health care we will be driving the costs up unless a cap for the actual cost can exist.
To sum it up, we have some broken cogs in the machine. I can not and will not afford any national health care plan and am looking forward to the day I will get fined, jailed and or denied health care because I don't qualify. I hope this is not going to be true, but this country is out of whack and the count is off. I hope the Census will bring light to this countries situation and to understand very fast that it maybe too late to fix.
I know more people in my community, county, do not have any insurance and most are on the government plan and are taken care of month after month for a small affordable fee that can not afford. I just hope our leaders really think about what they are doing and what is really going on. I just feel they are in a box thinking and not out of the box thinking.
Here is an out of the box idea. Being I have experienced the VA medical facilities in Michigan and compared to the Private sector Medicine my vote has to go to the VA. The government has a working model and the need to take care of more Veterans is inevitable because we are still at war. The cost has gone up in this sector and is going to increase. The VA has recognized this and in Michigan at this time the VA is expanding the clinics for my regional area. Here is the grand idea, the government should claim public domain and take the Private Medical Entities over and run them like the VA Model.
Believe me! You would not mind it! And in matter of fact you would see efficiency like you have never seen before. I have never waited over 10 minutes for any appointment at any of the VA Hospitals or Clinics. If I am in Florida, California or any state, there is a hospital or clinic I can go to. But, the private sector will not deliver me via ambulance; I have to get their by myself.
I think it has become the day that we need to do something radical. There has been a price put on my life and it has an infinity number that is determined by script in a letter as to what is important and how much it will cost to give me life. Life does have a cost and we are being fleeced. We will be taxed on the new legislation and all legislation has a compromise, fancy words for a new tax as you the tax payer is the compromise. I honestly think that the average American would allow the government to ask for $50 a month from everyone to go to social medical care, after all we are already there, just do it! We do not have a choice when we are in the box!