It's Free: Trust Me
Posted: Thursday, September 10, 2009
by Michael Ramzy
delusionthread.com
Imagine this analogy:
I have a shower running full-blas
t and all of this water is running down the drain. I tell you I will be glad to water your lawn, and I can do it without adding any more water down the drain or taking in any more water from the city. You're skeptical, since you understand basic math, but I'm adamant. All the while, the water is running down the drain, and all the while I'm telling you I can do it. All I have to do, I say, is shut off the water running down the drain and I'll have enough left over. You say fine, stop wasting the water and then come talk to me, but I hesitate. You see, I really want to water your lawn. You don't see how I can possibly do it, and so you refuse to let me. Your lawn turns brown, my lawn turns brown (since all of my water ran down the drain), and in the end we are left with two empty buckets at our neighbor's house asking to borrow some water.
Last night Mr. Obama presented himself to both houses of Congress to push them toward some kind of health-care reform .Everyone agrees this reform is needed, and everyone wants some kind of change to the way insurance providers do their job.
The plan(s) Mr. Obama presented last night have merit, and are not a bad starting point. He is a great communicator and a good salesman, and he pretty much had me until near the end of his speech, when he told me this public-option would cost nothing: no taxes would be raised, no premiums or benefits cut, and no one left without insurance.
It would be paid for mostly by curbing the abuse and fraud in Medicaid and Medicare. He said this four times, and the dollars saved are around 600 billion dollars. I wonder this: if this amount can be saved, why not take care of it now? Why not cut the fraud and abuse right now, and then just regulate the industry as the car-insurance industry is regulated? That is, let insurance providers go national so someone in Texas can get a Geico-type insurance from California, or New York? This would provide the needed competition everyone says is lacking, take care of the abuse and fraud, and make most people happy.
But that's too simple for government, isn't it? The reasons are many why this particular solution is not viable, and yet I can only think of one: the government wants everyone to have insurance, and the only way to make that happen is for the government to provide it. Not a bad idea, objectively, yet certainly not free no matter who says so.
I agree health-care reform is needed. But please, do not tell me it will cost nothing and certainly do not tell me the goverment, which runs Medicare and Medicaid, can cut the abuse and fraud in their own programs without cutting benefits.
Any program the government comes up with as an alternative, or 'addition' to health insurance will be a Godsend to some Americans. But it won't be free. Knowing the nature of government we can be sure it will be costly.
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Top-level comments on this article: (3 total)Hi Michael.Your analogy is brilliant. Makes it all so much more easily understood. Good point too. Why don't they fix the corruption now? Too many people profiting from it maybe? Cynical me.Thanks for your thoughts.DianneAnd thanks for yours. It really should be easier than it is, but then again so should many things. Thanks for reading and commenting.
Great article. Well done.I agree it will cost but since it won't have any profit margins to worry about then it should -in theory - work out cheaper. I think you will get what you pay for should what Mr Obama says does not work out.Anyway, I love the analogy.I just wish he (or any politician) would think it all the way through and stop thinking we're so gullible. Thanks for reading and commenting.
Hi Michael, Please take a look at my recent (today) article "Health Care? or Health $" and maybe we could have a discussion on where to go with health care. I agree with you, to continue as we are going will be a disaster.
Best................e
You're right, it will be a disaster. The problem seems to be money, yet for the life of me I can't figure out why both parties seem to be dragging their feet on this. Sure, most Americans have health care and don't want to play with it, and those who do want it played with seem to have some other (political, of course) motive. The bottom line is that there is already enough money in the system. Taking away the abuse and fraud is a great start, yet that should be first. Then, let them (the proverbial 'them') do the right thing. But to say we can do it all at once is delusional and to say it won't cost anything, given the state of fraud in government now, is an outright lie. Or, as they say in Washington, wishful thinking.Thanks for reading and commenting.
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