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Editor's Note: We are hopeful that most of us have gotten past the loud partisan bickering and wasted breath. We know we're not going to convince one another that "my plan is better than yours," or that doing nothing is best, or that we're all socialists and nazis if we desire less costly alternatives to what the private sector beast offers. We also know that private insurance premiums and health care costs are driving businesses, individuals and our country into the ground. We all love America. So let's try to find some common ground and do what is best for our country and our neighbors. Can we think about giving Health Care Reform and Peace a chance, at least? If we don't like what reform brings (we happen to support a public plan option) then we can shuck it at the next bend in the road.
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
September 3, 2009
Op-Ed Columnist
New York Times
Read the whole story here
Here's a paradox.
Health care reform may be defeated this year in part because so many Americans believe the government can't do anything right and fear that a doctor will come to resemble an I.R.S. agent with a scalpel. Yet the part of America's health care system that consumers like best is the government-run part.
Fifty-six to 60 percent of people in government-run Medicare rate it a 9 or 10 on a 10-point scale. In contrast, only 40 percent of those enrolled in private insurance rank their plans that high. Multiple Surveys
In truth, despite the deeply ingrained American conviction that government is bumbling when it is not evil, government intervention has been a step up in some areas from the private sector.
Until the mid-19th century, firefighting was left mostly to a mishmash of volunteer crews and private fire insurance companies. In New York City, according to accounts in The New York Times in the 1850s and 1860s, firefighting often descended into chaos, with drunkenness and looting.
So almost every country moved to what today's health insurance lobbyists might label "socialized firefighting." In effect, we have a single-payer system of public fire departments.
. . . . .
Throughout the industrialized world, there are a handful of these areas where governments fill needs better than free markets: fire protection, police work, education, postal service, libraries, health care. The United States goes along with this international trend in every area but one: health care.
. . . . .
"If other health care providers followed the V.A.'s lead, it would be a major step toward improving the quality of care across the U.S. health care system," Rand reported.
As for the other big government-run health care system in the United States, Medicare spends perhaps one-sixth as much on administration as private health insurers, although the comparison is imperfect and controversial.
But the biggest weakness of private industry is not inefficiency but unfairness. The business model of private insurance has become, in part, to collect premiums from healthy people and reject those likely to get sick - or, if they start out healthy and then get sick, to find a way to cancel their coverage.
14 comments:
A very insightful op-ed. It will be interesting to read comments from the readers.
Tragically, we are becoming a nation moved by false advertising, sound bites, labeling, idle Twittering, and blogging anonymously. Forget thoughtful study, rational consideration and open discussions to solve our problems and improve our lives and the lives of our fellow citizens.
Instead, we play on unfounded emotional fear mongering and stereotyping, shouting at each other and refusing to believe factual information. Not a pretty picture.
Most Americans deserve what they get for being so stupid and permitting a corrupt Congress and greedy corporate sector. I used to care, once upon a time --- no longer.
Now, I just make sure my family is well covered, pay "through the nose" for several coverages and really don't care what Congress does about health care and how much people complain.
"It's a dog-eat-dog U.S."
I used to be a devout Republican.
The 2-party system has destroyed the U.S. Now, I am a political atheist.
While Washington D.C. has refused to act responsibly for the people of this nation, it also has trickled-down to the state and local levels.
Congress observes with closed eyes.
There still is no accountability and those in power are seeking more power and money.
Our government for the most part has manipulated the Constitution and destroyed our very American way of life.
The people have followed in the footsteps of our "do nothing" Congress, which still does nothing for the people it is supposed to serve. I'm not speaking about getting something for nothing. I'm no socialist. Whatever happened to "a good day's pay for a good day's work"?
Health care is NOT the most important issue. Currently, creating jobs should be the dominant focus. While Obama promised jobs to Americans, he and the Congress have done little to provide them.
Unemployment is increasing. There is no measure of those who have been unemployed for more than 1 year. Those numbers are still increasing. Foreclosures still are increasing. There are few jobs to appy for. More homes will be lost.
It just took 5 months for me to refinance my home. Mortgage companies say they are too backlogged. Refinancing and getting modified mortgages were supposed to become easier for Americans. That's just not the case.
Still, Congress looks at the U.S. with closed eyes.
We are in a devastating depression with no relief in sight.
Health care takes a back seat to all this. Who can afford health care when there is little or no income.
Obama says there is money for Americans to retrain so they will be ready for the job market.
How can you retrain when there are no jobs and when you can not pay your daily living costs?
Simply stated, we have lost our way and it has taken several decades to get to this point.
Here in Hays County the real issues also are swept aside. Jobs, clean water, taxes without much give-back, profiteering without providing for the community good, increasing foreclosures, etc., are prominent.
Blogs prevail with bickering and few pertinent recommendations to remedy the real issues.
We are lost and will remain lost until people get the jobs needed that will inject money back into the economy, which will spur business profits and rebuild our infrastructures that will create more jobs and permit people to buy goods and services that will increase the profits of the retail sectors. That is what is needed.
Health care takes a back seat to this. For now, health care is a luxury most can not afford.
The government needs to back off, way off, right after lowering taxes. Government is the problem since its actions create the reactions from the private sector that cost us all. A do-nothing Congress is exactly what we need right now. Putting our country deeper in debt is not working.
The left has turned up the volume of the debate because they see their last hope for government healthcare slipping away. It appears that Obama may distance himself from the “public option” in his usual run for cover answer to the many mistakes he has made. His latest was his communist Green Czar, Van Jones.
Oh BTW, where is the coverage of Saturday’s “Tea Party Rally” against the health care “Public Option” at the Capitol. It totally eclipsed the previous Saturday’s pro-government healthcare rally. Again the media barely mentioned it, again showing its bias by omission.
"A do-nothing Congress is exactly what is needed."
Wrong! The do-nothing Congress has continued to do nothing for the majority of people in this nation, but it has done PLENTY for its wealthy special interests.
Now that its interests have been served, Congress needs to provide jobs for people. It needs to because the private sector is not creating them.
How it can do so is to create a national job program to rebuild our infrastructures and to give incentives to the business sector to rehire or hire new personnel and or to retrain employees.
Congress helped to create this economic mess and it can NOT back away now and leave it the way it is.
So far, after the socialist bail-outs, nothing has changed in business or in Washington.
The only thing different is the grown and increasing national debt.
The U.S. no longer has value. It is overinflated. Like a house, we have borrowed too much on a 2nd and 3rd mortgage and we now have more debt than the house is worth.
Are we just going to walk away from the property entirely and foreclose to the Chinese, Japanese, Indians and/or Saudis?
I also am a proponent of less government, but the government has helped create the mess we are in and now can NOT just walk away from it, as you and some others want.
Congress first has to undo some of the damage it created. After it does that, mostly by creating jobs, it may then stay out of our lives. But it won't happen because power & control has become a more commonplace American staple.
of a hybrid socialist America. Don't laugh. The tens of billions in government subsidies to the private sector, even before the latest big round of bailouts, has got us going down that path already. Once the People reach a consensus viewpoint that the giant sums of taxpayer cash going each year to support Big Business is socialism in reverse, or one-way socialism, the People will begin to demand a bigger piece of their own pie. Fair, cost effective health care reform is the best and biggest place to start. That's what all the national clamor is about. As things now stand, the private sector is eating our lunch. Somehow, in the history of our great county, the private sector took control of Jefferson's Manifest Destiny vision – lock, stock and barrel, and left the People behind in the dust, or in the dustbin of history. There's a new Manifest Destiny for us all blowing in the wind now.
The only way government can create jobs is to take from someone else. The private sector is too scared to hire people right now because of the socialist climate now in congress and the White House. The take-over of our nation’s banks and industries without due process or firing a single shot is a mystery to those of us who love and have read the Constitution.
Both parties created this mess and now the Democrats think they can fix it with more government. The Republicans are just sitting on their hands waiting for Obama to fail so they can get back in power and will likely screw it up even more. The only answer is to keep voting out the incumbents and hope the ones elected won’t have enough time to make things worse.
If the so-called private sector is doing something illegal, the Executive branch needs to be arresting somebody. This won’t happen because the office holders need their campaign donations to get re-elected.
A Constitutional Amendment to limit all office holders (all levels of government) to just one term and then they couldn’t run for another ten years is needed. The problem is when someone is elected; they start trading favors for re-election money, even before they sit in the chair. Legislative and executive government office was never meant to be a lifetime job. The longer they stay in office the more distant and corrupt they become. The Senate looks like a retirement home so I’d propose an age limit to hold any Government office, of say 65. There is already a minimum age to hold office.
"The only way government can create jobs is to take from someone else."
That is not completely true.
If by "someone else" you really mean tax dollars, then yes, you are right. Congress will need to take tax dollars from one area and redirect it to job creation and for incentives to businesses that hire Americans.
Since the government already stuck its probosis into everyone's business, it should take tax dollars to create jobs that rebuild our roadways, bridges, etc.
Government needs to cut expenditures and reduce the national debt. Once it completes that it can reduce taxes gradually.
But we need to do this now. The longer we wait the worse it gets.
I’m sure you are aware of the stimulus money amounting to over $700 billion of which about $500 billion has already been spent. Where are the jobs that were created from that? The government does not create jobs; businesses do, unless you are advocating government jobs. Maybe there are some Czar jobs open. The party in power just can't bring itself to cut taxes but that will fix the thing.
Why don't you Google FDR's administration and how he and Congress created jobs that rebuilt our infrastructures.
That is what I am speaking about when I say that government should create jobs.
I also stated that government can provide incentives to businesses to rehire and hire U.S. citizens only.
By doing both of the above, we would be on our way to improving our economy and in a much quicker way than is currently being advocated.
Again, the free markets goobers would rather be screwed by the insurance companies than the government. I'll try the public option. I have nothing to lose. If I don't like it, I can go back to being ripped off by the lobbyists, oops, sorry, I mean the health care companies.
So, Charles [1st comment], was it interesting enough for you? Well it scares the hell out of me!
The bottom-line is that our current health care system is NOT working for most Americans; consequently, at the least we need to modify it.
Being that our government moves like a snail in making changes --- unless the changes are for powerful and wealthy special interests --- Americans can NOT depend on government for expedient progress on the health care issue.
The private health care sector has NOT stepped-up to the task of making health care plans more affordable with more coverage and fewer restrictions.
This issue has become more urgent during the past year due to the increasing job losses, more people on unemployment benefits, escalating home foreclosures, people who no longer are eligible for unemployment and are lost in the government's unemployment numbers, tons of folks who can NOT afford COBRA, etc., etc.
With regard to public health, we are an accident waiting to happen.
Why isn't the health care leadership moving quickly to help resolve this urgent issue? It is in the industry's best short and long-term interest to do so, yet?
Those who do not see the increased urgency re: implementing health care change are fools. With so many Americans without health plans it is only a matter of time before costs sky-rocket. It is a domino-effect.
And what about the 20 million illegal immigrants living and/or working in this nation, most of whom do not have health care coverage?
We should all be concerned that tent cities are springing up all over the nation. People continue to lose their jobs, homes, cars, and health insurance plans.
To do nothing is to help create a decaying society, ensuring further health issues and concerns.
While Obama's health care plans are NOT in our best interests, there is a great need for health care change.
An easy and intelligent approach for positive health care change is to let Americans buy into Medicare.
Medicare is a system already in place. While Medicare needs urgent modifications, it is a successful health care system.
So, why not make the long-needed changes and implement Medicare for all Americans?
Whatever the determination on what to do with our health care system, it had better be implemented immediately before we must deal with more economic and health related catastrophies.
This is an urgent issue that must be resolved by government and the private health care sector working together. The resolution is needed last month!
"I’m sure you are aware of the stimulus money amounting to over $700 billion of which about $500 billion has already been spent"
This is incorrect. No one knows where and how much of the bailout billion have been provided to and spent by the corporate sector.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Stop-stalling-and-show-us-the-bailout-books-43088037.html
There is no paper or money trail provided as an oversight.
So much for Obama's "transparent" government.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/01/28/eveningnews/main4761089.shtml
The Bush years continue with a black "Bush" in the White House.
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