I Want Health Care Reform

Contrary to what that the pundits, talking heads, ObamaCare supporters, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and others might want to portray, the vast majority of Americans want Health Care Reform. They just don't want the odious Bill that was, against the will of the majority, crammed down their throats.

I, too, want Health Care Reform. Health care costs are too high. But this is not the way to do it. My parents always said that I should never present a problem without a solution. I've done that very thing in my previous posts and its the essence of this blog. And so I present a solution. But first, let's break down the major pieces and follow the logic.
Fact: Not everyone can afford Health Insurance.

Why is this a fact? Most would say its because health care professionals make "too much money". However the vast majority of professional health care providers average no more than any other professional (from $24,000 to $100,000 per year, depending on expertise and field). Compare that to the average major league baseball (average, mind you) salary of from $600,000 to $6,800,000 per year.

Not a fair comparison because there are much fewer professional baseball players than health care professionals? Ok, how about computer technicians: they vary from an average of $41,000 to $70,000 per year.

So if the health care professionals aren't making the money, then it must be the hospitals themselves, right? Interestingly enough, hospitals compare their pofitability to industry regularily. Their average profit margin is around 10%, which is actually #77 of the Top 100 most profitable industries. Why? Because their own costs are so high. Mostly that's due to the cost of drugs, insurance and medical equipment. So one has to ask why that is. The root cause, with a bit more digging, is that the drug companies and medical equipment suppliers are paying huge insurance premiums.

Oh, so its those evil capitalistic profit centers. Turn out they're not even in that same Top 100. Eventhough insurance costs are high, the providers (as evidenced this week in Massachettets) don't make a high enough profit margin to pay out the claims they've been forced to take on.

So what's going on?

Here's what's going on... they all (health care professionals, hospitals, drug companies, medical equipment manufacturers, insurance companies) have to bear the cost of outrageous medical malpractice judgements. It turns out that the Government Accounting Office (GAO) reported to Congress on this issue as early as 2003. However, since Congress is largely made up of members of the legal profession, no action was taken.

Tort reform, already acknowledged as being a key to reducing health care costs, would cut in on their profession (their other one) and that of their "pals". Once again, Congress has shown that they have their own bests interests at heart, instead of that of their consituents. They have exempted themselves from their own laws, they have created their own banking and postal systems, their own privileges. The are not representative of We the People.

I want Health Care Reform. I want affordable health care. So where do we start?

We do not start by adding onerous taxes to an already overtaxed populace. We do not start by pushing through a law contrary to the will of the people. We do not "work with the law we now have" as some of the professional politicans have said.

Instead, we start with tort reform. Then we push this to insurance reform. These flow through to drug cost and equipment cost reform which ends up in lower health care costs.

This is exactly what the much maligned but undeniably successful "trickle down" policy of Ronald Regan accomplished by cutting taxes. It resulted in lower unemployment and a robust economy. Regardless what the self-proclaimed intelligensia would like to claim, it worked. And it did so because "A" connects to "B" connects to "C". It didn't start and end with "C".

Ronald Regan attacked the causes of unemployment and economic problems, not the symptoms. Likewise, as with heath care itself, we must attack the causes, not the symptoms of health care costs.

But before we can accomplish tort reform, the vested interest must be removed. That is, the professional politicians must be replaced with those who can "follow the money" and see what must be addressed. The people who sold us, We the People, down the river must be removed and replaced. It's time for revolution.

The willy-nilly spending, unwillingness to address the real problems, arrogance and hubris of the administration and legislature over decades have lead to this. This citizen has had enough and is, by Right of the Founding Fathers, taking the matter into his own hands. I am calling for open, civil rebellion and revolt. I am actively working for it.

This is what I am doing. What are you doing?