Healthcare Reform

We can probablly all agree that healthcare in the US is messed up. The question is what is the bigger ill, government intervention or unfettered insurance companies running amok?

Insruance companies are out of control. One example, in January I had salmonella, but it was presenting as appendicitus. So off to the ER where the ER doc thinks it is appendicitius and acts accordingly. When all is said and done, the hospital bill and insurance nonsense comes in. The insurance company is refusing to pay for tests that "are not necessary" to treat salmonella.

Even if the insurance companies have their guidelines based on doctors reviewing records, the examining physician's thoughts should be given greater weight since he was there to poke and prod and could see and examine what was going on.

Government health care is not any better. In Canada and the UK it is great for emergent situations, but not good for run of the mill ailments, even large/serious aiments. Need your knee scoped? It may take a year. The indigent health care systems in place in the US are marginally better at best. The fear is that the same will happen to health care in the US should government take control over health care.

I don't know what a good answer is, but two things stand out.

1) There is a potential middle ground. The government hires attorneys in significant numbers and pays them well, but not exhorbinant sums. There is no reason they couldn't do the same for doctors. These doctors would then be available to treat like they do in Canada and the UK. Then people will have a choice, they can either keep their private insurance, or they can go to a government doctor. Yes, this will hurt the insurance companies bottom line, but given the flaws in the way a government controled system of this nature would have there would still be a market for private insurance. They would simply have to provide a better product to keep people who are on the fringe of needing insurance as paying customers.

2) The nay sayers who trumpet the free market and say the free market will provide better care than the government seem to be discounting the free market. We already have a government healthcare system in Medicare. The free market responded by making Medicare supplement insurance. What's to stop that from happening if the government gets involved in healthcare for everyone?

I haven't formed an opinion on the current health care debate, but it seems that this has become more about political power and political will than about reforming a broken system. And we are all worse off as an end result.