Friday, September 4, 2009

The Health Care Chronicles: How could "change" affect you?

Let me first start out and say that it's fair to have some concern and perhaps even some reluctance about the government stepping into a privatized industry like the Health Care-Industrial Complex. Our country was founded on the outright disapproval of centralized power understanding that absolute power corrupts absolutely. I understand the history we have experienced as a country and therefore I understand where the ambivalence comes from. There is no doubt in my mind that total government control at least leads to inefficiencies and at worst leads to outright corruption. For this reason though, I have enough reason to equally fear the executives of many companies

Too frequently however, I hear the comparison of the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to the proposed healthcare initiative. I think you're confusing the British system with what is technically being proposed. Comparing the DMV to healthcare is not even close enough to say that you're comparing apples and oranges. The proposed system would not make public the hospitals nor the administers of health. On top of that, doctors will still funnel into their private practices and private hospitals much in the same way they did before. I applaud the efforts of the administration and Congress to at least try to do something so that even hard-working people do not end up in compromising circumstances. If a larger majority of hard-working people get healthcare and a few abusers of the system slip by, that is fine by me.

By the way, I will continue to enjoy my company-sponsored health care. If the day comes that the company cannot afford as has been spelled out by doomsdayers, then I will buy market-rate individual health insurance, because I can. Yes, I have made all the right moves because I had parents who supported me, I was lucky enough to go a great bunch of schools, and worked hard to get a scholarship to undergrad. I do not aggrandize my experience b/c it took the support from a good number of people.

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