Health Care Debacle

Okay. For months some of us have been watching with some interest in the goings on in Washington over health care reform. As it stands of this writing, pretty much everything which had been promised has been excised from the bill.

I have come to the conclusion that the only rational solution to end this nonsense is to simply make Medicare an opt in for all, even those with current insurance. Medicare is quite simple, you get sick and you get fixed. You can go anywhere you choose, anywhere in the country and get medical care. The premiums you would pay would be the same nationwide. There are no exclusions at all, no matter how sick or the cause, you get treatment and it's covered. No games.

Some will say that this is a government run health care plan. Indeed, it is rather a government administered health care plan. The government sets the rates it will pay and the providers choose to either accept it or not, just as it is now. This controls costs to the government and the insured person.

Now some will say that this plan will infringe upon the rights of insurance companies. Not so. This is a market based system, if the insurance companies choose to meet the price and quality Medicare provides, they are entitled to do so in the same way the government does. The insured decides for himself which plan works best for him and his family.

There is no reason for the government to make new laws restricting a private company. By offering the public option alone will bring them in line because the consumer will choose for themselves.

The government can provide a subsidy to lower income people to either offset the Medicare premium or the same amount to a private insuror, but again the consumer makes that decision which to choose.

It will be up to the insuror to match the benefits of a Medicare plan for all.