|
| |
Dear Congressman Taylor:
We can’t afford to wait until the health-cost bubble breaks
Here’s a dose of truth: health care costs are spiraling upward at several
times the rate of inflation and wages. This bubble is unsustainable and
will burst just as the financial and real estate bubbles did with equally
disastrous results. Democrats are giving us one more last chance to fix
it.
The health care industry has many diverse, conflicting interests, so any
bill must be long and complicated. We don’t have one yet.
All federal employees have access to the same insurance plans that
Congress has. I have one. FEHB offers a choice from many insurance plans
with defined benefits — similar to Obama’s plan and also Hillary’s in
1994. Y’all hate those.
When one proposal offered help to fill out advanced health directives for
free, instead of selling them like Rush Limbaugh does for LegalZoom.com,
demagogues accused Obama of wanting to kill old people.
Most seniors love Medicare but do not realize that it is a gov-ernment-run,
socialist program. Democrats passed Medicare with only 51 votes in 1965.
Obama wants to cut subsidies to the Medicare Advantage plans, the
Republican attempt to privatize Medicare. He wants to negotiate for lower
drug prices.
There’s a federal law against federal funding for abortions. I’m OK with
that.
Here’s my opinion: everyone should have access to Medicare with premiums
subsidized for the poor and higher for the well-off. Then everyone could
buy minimal or gold-plated supplemental policies. This would preserve the
insurance corporations but limit their power over our lives. Standardized
forms would save billions of dollars for providers and insurers. Use some
of these savings to train more doctors, freeing them from that financial
burden. If doctors follow treatment protocols and have a mediation
process, lawsuits and obscene malpractice premiums should go down.
These plans would follow the individual, freeing businesses to take care
of business, instead of health care.
No plan is perfect, but we’ve got to start somewhere.
JO ANN S.
Gulfport, MS |
|
