We need a serious debate about health care : John Oxendine
By: Health Insurance
Submitted: 2009-08-20 17:05:19 | Word Count: 563
Our politicians in Washington, D.C., are making momentous decisions about your health care that will impact your daily lives and set the course for our country for decades to come. Your voice needs to be heard.
As Georgia insurance commissioner, I have closely followed the debate about the plans for the government takeover of the U.S. health-care system proposed by President Obama and the U.S. Congress.
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THEIR PROPOSAL would virtually devastate the private health-care sector in this country along with competition and patient choice, by replacing it with bureaucratic planning and government control. The result of this plan and its $1 trillion price tag will bring harm to those the president and Congress are ostensibly trying to help.
In a twist of logic that would put a contortionist to shame, the president and other proponents of this big government scheme argue that a public option (or, in other words, a government-run) plan is necessary to apply competitive pressure to private sector participants.
What they fail to acknowledge is that once established, this federally subsidized, government-run public plan will squeeze out private sector companies resulting in a health-care monopoly run by Washington. Any potential initial cost savings soon would give way to a bloated and wasteful federal bureaucracy with the efficiency of the INS and the heart of the IRS.
Any remaining attempts to hold down cost will come by restricting patient access and choice. Those hardest hit by this government rationing will be our senior population. The hollow promise made by those in Washington -- that if you like your current insurance you can keep it -- will soon be forgotten when the private health insurance market is gone.
There is an artificial sense of urgency in Washington created by politicians who want to use the current recession as an excuse to fundamentally alter the free market economic foundation of our country. Yes, the number of uninsured is too high, but the number seen in the press includes illegal immigrants; the "young and invincible" population who is financially able yet chooses not to purchase insurance; individuals in transition between jobs; and those who are eligible but have chosen not to receive assistance.
MANY CONSIDER our country's health-care system to be the envy of the world. However, there are aspects about the system that need to be fixed. We need a serious debate, and that debate needs to include topics such as tort reform, tax incentives and individual policy portability. At the end of this debate, individuals need to be in charge of their health care, and we do not need a government bureaucrat between them and their doctor.
Our politicians in Washington, D.C., need to take a deep breath and listen. Your voice needs to be heard.
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