Thoughts on Healthcare and the Reform of It

It looks like we are going to get some sort of healthcare reform in the not too distant future. It’s not going to be exactly what anybody wants, but hopefully we will end up being at least a little bit closer to universal/single payer coverage.

Before we get into it I’d like you to know where I stand. I’m left pretty leaning, but am finding myself drifting towards the left center on some issues. I am for universal and/or single payer healthcare. I have concerns about the cost of it and how efficiently the government can manage a nationwide healthcare system, but I do not think these are reasons to not provide healthcare for all. I believe healthcare is a human right and that everyone should have access to it; citizen, legal resident, and everyone else who falls into a different category.

Pros from my Perspective:
1) Small businesses provide over half of all private sector jobs, and play a major roll in our local, regional, and national economies. They have a terrible time staying competitive with big business and part of the problem is compensation of employees and employee retention. Health insurance is very expensive for small business and I often hear small business owners say they have to decide between hiring or firing employees or paying for health insurance. If small businesses are such an integral part of our economy I would think universal care would be very beneficial to them and the economy on all levels. It would allow those small businesses that provide healthcare to focus those resources spent on healthcare elsewhere and it would reduce the number of employees that leave small business positions because of a lack of healthcare. I don’t see how small businesses can be against healthcare reform. I’m sure there are some reasons and I would love to hear them but I don’t think I’ll agree with many of them.

2) For much of the 20th century large businesses have employed a decent chunk of the population. I think it is possible that this percentage has been shrinking over the past ten years and if it has not I think it will begin to in the very near future. With the advent of the internet, cheap, portable, powerful  computers, and many other reasonably priced technologies it is becoming easier than ever to be self employed and to turn that self employment into a small business. I would venture to guess that there are many people in this fine country with ideas, good and bad, for self employment or a small business and one of the things keeping them from making the jump is lack of healthcare coverage. Yes there is COBRA, but it is often prohibitively expensive and only lasts for a finit amount of time. If we truly want to be the country of the American Dream why not provide healthcare coverage to all to level the playing field and allow those without as many resources to have one less reason to not put their business plan into action.

3) Job Creation. How many baby boomers and putting off retirement until they reach medicare age because they do not want to pay for private insurance or COBRA or are worried about getting insurance after COBRA runs out? I bet a decent number of baby boomers would retire, at least partially retire anyways, if they had access to affordable healthcare. It is even possible that this would save businesses money. They would shed many older workers who earn more money and these workers would, at some point, have to be replaced with younger ones who make less money. These younger workers are not going to be as efficient as the baby boomers they are replacing, so it is possible that it would be a wash.

4) Pros from Google.

5) Google on dumb reasons to be against healthcare reform.

Cons from my Perspective:
1) An article on the top ten myths of American healthcare. My step-dad, who is relatively conservative sent this to me. I haven’t had a chance to take a very close look at it, maybe some of you will.

A few things to note about The Pacific Research Institute is a free market, read conservative, think tank whose purpose is to promote “the principles of individual freedom and personal responsibility.” One should always know where or who one is getting information and what, if any, end goals the organization may have. I think PRI gets mentioned on MPR and NPR from time to time, but it is possible that it is a different PRI. There may be a blog post in the future on the “free market” Pacific Research Institute think tank.

2) Expense. It’s going to be expensive, but that in and of itself deter me from thinking that healthcare for all should be a given. It doesn’t seem that the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Budget_Office or OMB can agree on whether healthcare reform can actually save the country. From my West Wing political education I know that national budget projections are not very accurate past ten years, so there’s that as well.

3) Government Inefficiency. Government is generally inefficient, it just is. I think the main reason is is the lack of competition. One of the beautiful things about capitalism and the free market is how efficiently resources can be allocated. Again, this should not kill healthcare reform, but it is something that needs to be taken into consideration and kept an eye on.

4) Cons from Google and the washington post.

5) Google on dumb reasons to be for healthcare reform.

Thoughts:
1) Americans seem to think that you should not be given anything for “free”, that you should have to work for and earn anything that you want, and that everyone should be able to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. This way of thinking has been very beneficial to many aspects of the development of our nation but it does have some negatives and I think our lack of universal healthcare is one of them. It reminds me of a scene in Runaway Jury where two jurors, John Cusack and an ex-military guy, are arguing about whether the victim of, I think, school gun violence should be compensated by the gun manufacturer. It comes out that the ex-military character thinks that the victim should be not be compensated because he, the juror, has had quite a hard life in the military and seen some really shitty things happen to his military buddies and none of them were compensated for their tough luck, so why should another victim of gun violence be compensated. This is a bit of a tangent, but I think this mind set, that one should have to work for and earn everything even healthcare, is pretty persistant in the U.S. and I don’t understand it, at least not when it comes to the healthcare debate.

2) Anit-choice advocates. I really cannot stand anti-choice activists and their insistence that federal dollars not go towards any abortions. This tactic is just one of many that is being used to try to derail healthcare reform. I believe there is a federal law on the books that already states that federal money cannot subsidize abortions so there insistence on similar wording in the healthcare reform legislation is redundant. I also don’t understand the federal law that states this because if I am not mistaken a variety of abortions have been legal since 1973. I do not care when you think life begins and I do not care if you think you are saving many lives by being anit-choice, you should not make decisions for others period. Rant over.

3) There are powers to be that will lose a lot of money if healthcare reform is passed and will continue lose more and more money as we, hopefully, move closer and closer to unviersal healthcare. I am pretty sure these powers to be are quite involved, directly and indirectly, with many of the movements that are against healthcare reform.

Related Bumper Stickers:
1) Focus on your own F-ing Family!

2) If you can’t trust a woman with a choice, how can you trust her with a child?

3) And many more for and against (The against bumper stickers don’t seem to be that accurate.) healthcare reform.

Questions:
1) Where do you stand on healthcare reform? What are your concerns?

2) Am I missing any pros or cons? What are some of the pros and cons from your prospective?

I’d love to hear from you and what you think on this issue. Please share your thoughts.