The Health Care Debate

Lots of fervor, fury and fast-talk about American Health Care.

Seems to me these are the basic issues:

1. Millions of people don't have health insurance, preventing them from having reasonable health care.

2. The cost of health care increases much faster than the cost of other things.

3. Creating a huge governmental bureaucracy may solve some problems but will surely create others.

4. This is going to cost a lot of money.

The Democrats say this will improve health care for all of us. That's a dubious proposition. Canadians have national health care and it seems to work when you have a cold or need a colonoscopy but many Canadians come to the US for surgery rather than getting in year-long queues. That's not an attractive option.

Republicans claim it's all a socialist plot and an economic disaster which will ruin American Health Care. A bit over the top for the most part but they're right about the cost--huge--and the need to borrow to pay for this at a time when we deep in the hole.

Insurance companies are making tons of money. My personal experience is they love the premiums but only reluctantly pay the bills. I think the way they run their business needs to be redefined and they need to be controlled more tightly.

Am I in favor of Obama's plan? Not really. Government shouldn't be running health care, just protecting me from the excess of profit-mad insurers. But we should do something to cover the millions who have no coverage. That's just wrong. Can't we start there and then take steps to control costs?

It doesn't seem necessary to do everything at once. Step by step may be a better way to proceed, giving everyone a chance to calm down, stop shouting and take a reasoned look at what needs to be done.