Is the Healthcare Bill A Good Thing?

Right up front I will confess I'm one of those people who feels that the health care bill is more likely to do harm then good. I do, however, believe that urgent health care reform is needed.

I am actually one of those millions of uninsured people that the bill is suppose to help. Since it passed, I'm now hoping that I fall below the line of income where you are required to buy it since I don't think I could buy it even if I used 90% of my income.

That's not even my main reason for feeling uneasy (or is it queasy - maybe I should see a doctor?) about this health bill.

My main concern is what this bill is going to do to our entire country.

Here is just one of many potential problems...If I understand this bill correctly, you will be required to buy insurance if your income is over a certain level (hopefully a very high level given the current cost of insurance). If you do not buy this insurance then you have to pay a fine. The kicker is that the fine is less then it costs to buy health insurance right now. I have seen a lot of people all over the internet saying that they will just pay the fine and only buy insurance when they get sick since insurance companies won't be able to turn them down for a pre-existing condition.

What will that do? It will force insurance companies to raise their rates to the point that they qualify as Cadillac insurance plans which will then be taxed. Before long, no one will be able to afford them. That, of course, will put all of the insurance companies out of business.

I actually don't have a problem with getting rid of health insurance. I really think health insurance should be illegal (with possibly the exception of catastrophic health insurance...maybe).

I've personally observed that having health insurance encourages you to go to the doctor more then you might if you knew you had to pay for it out of your own pocket. It also lets you just go to whatever doctor you feel like going to rather then shopping around (like you would for anything else). Doctors also charge excessive amounts without feeling guilty because they feel the insurance company can afford it. The insurance companies are intrinsically flawed because their main concern is to drive down costs in order to make more profit. Most of these companies appear to care little about the human cost of their actions.

There are many improvements if you get rid of health insurance. Once doctors no longer have to hire full time employees to wrestle with insurance and medicare then they can drop their prices to something even poor people like me can afford. They also have to look poor suffering people in the face and tell them the how much their service is going to be.

There have been examples of health care without insurance. My sister told me of a real life success story. There is a clinic that refuses to take any kind of insurance or medicare, everyone has to pay in cash up front, and they only charge about $35.00 for a regular office visit. Apparently this clinic is doing a land-office business and making money hand over fist. Their patients must be pretty happy too or they wouldn't be so busy.

Anyway, back to the health care bill. The problem with this bill driving insurance companies out of business is that once the insurance companies are toast, then everyone will most likely be put on medicare or something similar (rather then simply getting rid of insurance). This is not something our government (meaning us) can afford and doctors can't either. Doctors have a very hard time getting paid by medicare and more and more doctors are refusing to take it.

Of course, you could prevent people from opting out of health insurance by raising the fine but that wouldn't prevent the insurance companies from increasing their premiums faster then even inflation can keep up (like they've been doing). We could then prevent them from raising their premiums but that could conceivably put them out of business and then there you are right back at the same problem.

Of course, it is now a done deal. Several states are trying to get it overturned through the courts but for now we are in a new and unfamiliar world. Lets try to find our way through as best we can and please...no violence.