Thesis on "Health Care Reform to Place Our Nation"

Thesis 6 pages (1898 words) Sources: 10 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Health Care Reform

To place our nation's health care under the very government that is now at the center of our fiscal problems, and which is piling up debt by the trillions even without health care, while the jobless rate continues to skyrocket, is not only fruitless, it is scandalous if not immoral. It is also implanting too much authority in the federal government vs. The individual states. In short, it is a gamble this country cannot afford to take with a federal government that has not proven it can run itself in an effective manner.

Fannie May, a federal government-sponsored and subsidized mortgage-lending institution, failed. The U.S. Post Office was $2.8 billion in debt in 2008 (CBS news, para. 3). It continues to be in serious financial trouble in 2009 and has raised postage rates again in receent weeks.

Many of the VA hospitals are a shambles as evidenced by the serious problems discovered at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington D.C. The Department of Education has failed to educate our children properly. The U.S. currently ranks 18th of the 36 industrialized nations (upi, para. 2). We can't even distribute flu vaccine year after year to the general population even though we know the virus is on its way each year about the same time.

And now we are promoting the federal government to include a national health program among its many failures? There must be a deep belief in the philosophy of "screw up and move up."

Besides our own history we know that other countries have tried national health care programs, mostly government-run, that have not done so well. Dr. Anne Doig, recently elected president of the Canadian Medical Association, says of their national health care program:

"In terms of value for money spent on health, we ranked last out of 30 countries. Patients wait for care at every level and many critical components of care - such as long-term care and pharmaceuticals - are not covered or are woefully under-covered" (Doig).

England's national health care system is no better than Canada's. Cancer patients wait up to eight months for treatment. Says Dr. Charles McGowan in his website article "Do we want England's Health care?"

"Almost 20% of colon cancer patients who are considered treatable when first diagnosed are incurable by the time treatment is finally offered. In the United

States during 2008 there were 108,000 new cases of colon cancer diagnosed and promptly treated. If we would have had the types of delays that England

has experienced under a "public option" type of health care system (socialized medicine) 21,600 of those patients would have become incurable."

And in the same article, McGowan quotes a British survey which reveals that 87% of respondents feel that the need for health care reform is either desirable (24%) or urgent (63%).

Keep in mind that this is a strong vote to reform an already reformed national health care system because of its serious pitfalls -- a system similar to the one being forced down Americans' throats.

There are dozens of countries around the world that have some form of universal health care. So, a fair comparison to all of them is impossible. But the Cato Institute, a non-profit, public policy research foundation in Washington D.C. has reviewed most of these health care programs, particularly the ones similar to the type of universal health care considered by the U.S.

While proponents of health care in the U.S. point to the lower costs associated with these programs in other countries as a positive, there are also problems, says Michael Tanner, director of health and welfare studies at Cato. He points to four issues (Tanner):

In many countries universal health care is promised, but in reality it is not completely accessible because of health care rationing and long waits for treatment.

Increasing health care costs are not unique to the U.S. As a percentage of GDP and per capita, costs are going up everywhere leading to budget deficits, tax increases, and universal health care benefit reductions.

Especially in countries where health care administration and control are accomplished mostly be the government, people are most likely to face waiting lists, restrictions on physician choice, and rationing.

Those countries with the most effective universal health care systems have incorporated market mechanisms such as competition, cost sharing, market pricing, and consumer choice. They avoid centralized government control as much as possible.

Cato's overall conclusion is that the smart move is not toward centralized government control of universal health care, but rather a system with market-oriented characteristics (such as the U.S. has now). In other words, the U.S. would be far better off modifying our current private system with all its advantages so that most Americans could be covered.

And what would our current system look like with a bit of modification vs. Obamacare?

It would remove the myriad of government-imposed mandates that drive up the costs of our current form of private health insurance. It would also eliminate unneeded coverages for those who don't need them, and allow for more of a "menu" approach to choosing health coverage.

It would mprove the litigation environment in the United States. The threat of malpractice looms large in this country and drives physicians' costs sky-high. As a result, insurance rates rise along with them. Reform of our current system should include heavier penalties for frivolous law suits and unnecessary medical tests. It cannot be denied that, if this litigation situation continues under universal health care, the system has not a chance of success (CBS news).

A modification of our current health care system would also include a much-expanded use of medical MSAs -- interest-bearing, non-taxable Medical Savings Accounts -- in conjunction with relatively high deductibles for major medical. The savings account would be used to pay for the major medical deductible.

The editors of National Review Online magazine ("Three Strikes Against Obamacare") proclaim that democrats have misled the American public with three claims: no one will be forced out of their current coverage; the public will not be subject to health care rationing; and that the program will not accumulate enormous amounts of debt for future generations. They claim the democrats know these statements are untrue and are purposely misleading consumers in order to get the legislation passed.

The worst of these, they say, is that millions of American families will be forced out of their current medical insurance. Then they will be forced into the government-run program. Though they admit current insurance plans are grandfathered into Obamacare, they claim that it is for only the first five years, and that is it written into the bill (Section 202(b)(1). "After that, the Democrats' mandates will force families and employers to select only those plans that conform to Washington's demands -- which is to say, to the demands of the insurance-industry lobbyists who will end up determining the criteria" (the editors).

They further point out that the bill does not specify whether or not, after the five years when forced to accept the universal health care insurance, the consumer can retain his own doctor as part of the plan.

Medicare coverage could be lost for the elderly. Democrats already admit that Medicare, a highly effective and efficient health care system for the elderly, will have reduced benefits in order to pay for the costly universal health care insurance. However, after some period of time, it is not clear whether Medicare will be retained at all in favor of "supposedly redundant" coverage from the national health program. With a national health program that only raises the coverage level from 83% of the population to 96%, it seems a high price to pay (the editors).

Other Issues

Let's look at the numbers of uninsured vs. those thrown about over the past few months. The advocates of health care reform give numbers around 40-50 million uninsured Americans who need universal health insurance. However, has anyone read a breakdown of those numbers anywhere?

Somewhere between 10 and 20 million are illegal aliens. Oh, yes, say the advocates but illegal aliens will be specifically eliminated from coverage. Says who?

In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled that aliens are entitled to legal protections under the Fourteenth Amendment in Wong Wing v. U.S. That ruling has been upheld in 1950, and in 1982 was expanded to provide free schooling for illegals in Texas. Bottom line is that illegal immigrants will eventually be covered by universal health care. So, add tens of millions of dollars to the figures being tossed about now (Warner).

The Congressional Budget Office says that the plans before the legislature should cost between $830 billion and $1.6 trillion over ten years. That is $20,000-$40,000 per person per year, which is 4 to 5 times what the most expensive plans cost today. Reformers argue that a federal plan would save money, but the government plan saves nothing (Warner).

And finally, two questions. Why are so many Americans so upset over this legislation? Upset is probably a… READ MORE

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