Healthcare Reform: We Need It, But Not This Way

As a citizen whose family uses the health care system more than the average American family, I am of the mind that our health care system needs some reforms. I am not, however, in favor of the government takeover of our healthcare via the current Obama Health Care Bill (I will call Obmacare)I am especially not in favor of the government trying to put one over on us. The health care bill which is now up for a vote is very long (2000 pages); nobody knows exactly what is in it, and how it will affect us.

Yesterday, the media reported that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was pushing to “deem” the Obamacare Bill as passed without ever having an up or down vote, on the record. This is a little used legislative trick that goes against everything we are about. This is a democracy, and we live by our constitution. I don't understand how this could be considered constitutional. If our legislators vote in favor of something we oppose, we can vote them out the next time around. If they are not forced to vote, but act as if the bill has already passed, then we are unsure how they stand on the issue, and our opinion does not matter.

If this bill is truly as good as the backers want us to believe it is , then let it stand on its own merits. The fact is an overwhelming majority of Americans do not want this bill to pass, and do not want a new Government agency to control of their health care. And for good reason! It seems everything the government touches becomes a disaster. Look at all of the graft and corruption associated with Government programs. Look at Medicare fraud, look at the budget deficit, look at the mess at Fannie May/Freddie Mac, look at people that turn Welfare into a lifestyle instead of a stop gap measure, look at all of the laws that we have on the books that we do not enforce that would make our country safer and more secure. Why would we want these people deciding on what health care we can have and how much it should cost us?

Up until January, I worked at a job that helped businesses sell their products and services to the Federal Government. In my job, I searched Federal Government websites daily to find business opportunities for our clients. In doing this, I saw first hand what the government buys and how much it spends. It was a very eye opening and maddening experience. The amount of waste is incredible.

In fact, even though we have been living in the Internet Age for more than 10 years, the government, until 2 months ago, still required companies to submit paper applications for all GSA (General Services Administration) contracts and for many of the government bids. GSA contracts can be 150 pages or more! Bids can be anywhere from 10 pages to 100 pages. Think of the waste of paper involved here! And often, they require a company to send 2 copies! In the case of bids, the government agency putting out a bid usually receives offers from multiple companies for one bid. If the paperwork for that bid is 100 pages long and 25 companies bid on that contract, the agency that put out the bid will receive 2500 pieces of paper for one bid. Talk about waste; waste of paper, waste of trees, and waste of space to store all of that paper! They have just now, in 2010, begun to consider GSA applications online in lieu of paper. This new program is not by any means complete so reams and reams of paper continue to be wasted while the transition is made. Why has it taken the government 10 years to realize we can save so much paper by using online applications? Shouldn't they be taking the lead in conservation measures?

For Obama to claim Obamacare will reduce costs is absurd.

• For those that are not insured right now (and some are uninsured BY CHOICE) they will be forced to be on some kind of insurance and it will cost them to be on a plan.
  
• For those people that are homeless, illegal immigrants, or otherwise on the fringes of society, I suspect they will not comply with any new regulations and will still somehow get care if they show up ill to the emergency room. This will cost all of us that are insured, as it does right now, by increasing overall health care costs and spreading this increase around.

• For those of us who have health care through our employers and are paying a large price for it, we will see a steep increase in our costs. We already face rising premiums and higher co-pays and deductibles every year. The only saving grace is that the portion that our employer pays is calculated before taxes are taken out of our paychecks. Under Obama, these employer sponsored insurance plans would be considered "gold plated health plans" and not only would the before tax deduction for our premiums be eliminated, our premiums would rise even more. As an example, at the current time, our family’s health care plan premiums cost us about $650/mo. It is a PPO plan and the employer pays the other $650/mo. We have a $250 deductible per person per year and an out of pocket maximum of $3000 per person per year. This means theoretically we could pay $19,200 out of pocket in one year for our coverage if every member of our family uses the maximum. That is unlikely, but I am using it as an example. And, that is calculated using the model that the employer’s contribution is pre tax! Under Obamacare, without that pre tax deduction, we would owe tax on $7,800 more in “income”. There is also speculation that there are other added taxes on the “gold plated plans”. Basically all this reconfiguring of costs does is punish those people who have managed to achieve enough success in life to hold a job which offers a health care plan by making those people pay for everyone else’s health care.
  
• Medicare patients should be concerned as well. This bill purportedly cuts Medicare spending by a lot! What happens to all those who are at the age where they need the health care system more than the rest of us? How will they pay for the care that is not covered anymore?
  
  The bottom line is that we do need some form of health care reform. Costs are out of control and there is no end in sight. Insurance companies raise premiums every year and they raise them a lot more than the cost of living or inflation go up.
  
  This Obamacare Bill, as it stands, needs to be scrapped. The government needs to use experts from the fields of finance, insurance, medicine, and gurus of business to come up with workable solutions for each broken aspect in the system. It needs to be reformed one step at a time, and in clear view of all Americans. No pork projects or back alley deals should be associated with health care reform. If they work a solution to one area, say, reforming malpractice laws, they can pass legislation that covers that area, and move on to the next area, i.e. how to handle health care for illegal immigrants. We will all see exactly how each piece will affect us and we will be more willing to go ahead with the needed changes.
  
  As I said, my family uses the health care system more than many families, so I am pretty concerned as to how reform, now or later, will affect the health of my family. I can only hope that clearer heads will prevail and that our Government, the Government we put our trust in, will keep our best interest in mind when going forward with any Health Care Reform.