When debating the instituting health insurance reform, people are what is important. Without people there is no need for healthcare or a healthcare insurance industry. American are dedicated to living a better life and most of the constructs of modern society and economy would not exist without that drive and action to effect what we have produced.
Healthcare and systems to pay providers are a requirement for any modern society. It may be true that modern societies prefer healthcare systems, but people are not profit centers dedicated to serving the corporations that facilitate healthcare. To gain some perspective on the current debate, picture this. If in our public discourse on healthcare were to replaced the concept of "corporation" with "king," many of the arguments and positions would become clear. Once again as citizens we must choose between serving a far off and disconnected "entity" or our own needs.
For four decades we have been told that, the public need is tertiary to profit increases and expanding corporate markets. But there is a big difference between paying for the cost of good healthcare and paying to inflate market valuations.
Therefore, I voted for officials dedicated to changing this practice.
On a personal note, I am a sole proprietor. I left the aerospace engineering industry over fourteen years ago and became a sole proprietor. As a sole proprietor I could not afford health insurance, so I relied on our public health clinics. Fortunately they are very good here in Seattle. I pay for services out of pocket and do what I can to maintain my health. Even so, dental work has made it a struggle. That struggle has been been more distressing by the fact that my need for dental repairs are rooted in low cost and low quality insurance supported dentistry of my youth.
As I remember it, health insurance companies have a history of hostility toward individual coverage here in Washington state. Didn't they institute a four year moratorium on individual coverage after a state referendum requiring it?
Only recently have there been any private coverage that comes close to being affordable and close is not coverage. No one will willingly go without health insurance if they can afford it. It makes sense to pool a portion of our wealth know that at any given time a small percent of us could need medical care that is beyond our immediate ability to purchase. We also know that in general most of use are healthy and paying into that pool. And that the larger that pool is the more likely their will be enough to go around.
If health insurance is a good practice for citizens and the companies that manage those funds have a stable revenue model, why is there a problem? The problem comes when corporations measure their success and health through methods that do not reflect the true nature of market they are serving. For instance, insurance companies have come to measure themselves like many corporations, how fast their value grows. Constant increasing profits have become the watchword for American corporations. It is not good enough to make a profit year to year, it is necessarily to increase profitability year to year. But does that make sense in an industry that has fixed limits? Only if you fudge the accounting! One dropped policy or delayed payment may not in it self amount to much. But if a company can leverage tens of thousands and use that money for short term investments it can add up to plenty. The problem with gaining value in this manner is that short term high payoff investments tend to be risky investments. And each successful profit from risky investments drives investing with greater risk if increased profits are to be sustained. This is a system being driven at the expense of policy holders, not for the benefit of policy holders.
According to the Frontline episode on "Healthcare Around the World," the Obama plan is similar to what the Swiss successfully instituted over a decade ago. Even then Swiss corporations almost defeated it. Today, citizens, politician and corporations view their healthcare system change as a good and needed change.
Given the current political environment and our experience at a state level, I think the Obama proposal is most likely to be accepted. I support this plan and will participate in it.
