While Reading the News

There was an article today in the New York Times with the headline “As Law Takes Effect, Obama Gives Insurers a Warning”, written by Kevin Sack and Sheryl Gay Stolberg. This article is bad news and a prime example of what is wrong with politicizing health care (or any other area of the economy, for that matter.)

As Mr. Obama’s health insurance reform law draw near, he is already warning insurers to not hike premiums in advance of closer government scrutiny of health insurance premium rates. If Mr. Obama forces health insurers to cover more and at the same time limits premium increases, then he is asking them to pay more cash and take in less cash. Eventually, he will drive them out of business. But long before they go out of business due to loss of income, the loss of profits will force investors, the people who buy stocks and bonds, to look elsewhere for reasonable returns on their savings, on their investment dollars. Put simply, if an investor or fund advisor has a pile of money to invest and insurance companies can’t pay the going rate, the investor will find other investments that will. Money will flow out of the insurance companies that we depend on for our health care coverage! This will force a crisis and in the end, a government take over of the health care industry.

So-called universal health care is a lie. No nation that has tried it has prospered and improved health care over the long run. Short term improvements may sometimes and in some places occur, but they do at the expense of drawing down existing capital. When that runs out, health care goes into a long, slow decline. No third party payer thinks your health is as important as you think it is. They simply aren’t going to value your care the same way you do and will not pay what you would be willing to pay. If you have paid into their system all your life, they will be slow to pay it back and you will not have any real say in your own care. The insurance company or the government will claim other obligations that take precedence and that they simply can’t afford your care, certainly not if they had to give that level of care to ‘everybody.’

True health care reform means putting the health care consumer back in the driver’s seat. That will only happen if the consumer is the one paying the bills. There should be a combination of health savings accounts, including terminal care savings, and patient bought health insurance and health care, all together and all bought and paid for by the people receiving the care. If a government safety net is felt necessary, it should be for the poorest and most desperate and should be considered a temporary safety net until the recipient can get back on their feet.