Did you notice that when politicians on either side of the health care issue were talking about what happened last week in The House they talked about a political side winning? You would have thought they were talking about the latest Celtics or Red Sox game. That small point in and of itself is the very reason why healthcare will generally speaking probably not change although all keen and impartial observers agree on one thing and that is it must.
“We won because of this. We won because of that,” they would say and nowhere does it say anything about the people who are footing the bill --how they won.Now for some small yet vitally important things to know about the healthcare issue.
If you have a very frank conversation with your doctor they will tell you that there are more rules for healthcare in this country then there are doctors and lawyers. And that is an issue. You doctor is more paper pusher than disease finder. Yet in this particular issue, it is not they who are consulted and therefore you will have a paper solution rather than a pragmatic one.
Next, no discussion of healthcare in this country that doesn’t start with tort reform, that is a discussion of lawsuits and malpractice and stuff like that, is a realistic one. Until that happens you will have extreme costs in healthcare. And still no one will win. Think you are going to get any action on that one? Nope. Congress is made up of lawyers by and large. But unless you can get malpractice insurance rates down you have no real hope at a solution.
One issue that is not being talked about that is crucial and must be dealt with is Medicaid. There are more people than ever before on it. Medicaid has a purpose. But the program has more issues as well. Doctors don’t like it. Many don’t take it. Hospitals reluctantly do then yell about reimbursements. In my reading of what was on the table there is very little if anything that deals with. That may or may not hold up.
Bulletin… any plan that talks about reducing the cost of premiums is not being truthful. This is federal speak. Just as your definition of a budget cut means one thing, it is different on the federal level. When we talk about premium increases not going up what they mean to say is they won’t go up so fast. Difference.
Those are some of the issues that are part of healthcare that should be the ones dealt with but are very little talked about. Instead somehow we got into a debate over agencies that should be or are not funded and whether conservatives and their agenda versus democrats and their agenda is better.I got news for you if we start out with the words “agenda” or “democrats” or “republicans” or “conservative versus liberal” what the politician, any politician is saying is actually “I haven’t got a clue as to what the answer is but here are the talking points the home office wants us to say.”
Why we can’t have two republicans and two democrats sit in a room with POTUS and not leave until they come up with a solution is beyond me. Why they can’t see what is wrong with what we have----and what is right and keep the right and fix the wrong is beyond me.Politicians are thinking about self preservation.
And, that is all fine and dandy. But the bottom line is “who is going to help preserve us.”
(Picture with thanks Carl Court/Getty Images)