http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704431804574539581994054014.html
I know... a few on the board will see this is an op-ed piece in the WSJ and will immediately attack the article based on that alone.
For the rest of you... this article addresses the biggest problem with the current health care bills. They do not address rising COSTS.
A quote from the article. "So the majority of our representatives may congratulate themselves on reducing the number of uninsured, while quietly understanding this can only be the first step of a multiyear process to more drastically change the organization and funding of health care in America. I have met many people for whom this strategy is conscious and explicit.
We should not be making public policy in such a crucial area by keeping the electorate ignorant of the actual road ahead." (END)
No one is ignorant of the road ahead. The goal is health care for everyone. It's as simple as that.
The costs and other reforms people talk about can not be addressed until the concept of health care for everyone is the basis from which everyone negotiates reform. One group against universal health care and another for universal health care can not discuss reforms because they are talking about two different things. That's why costs and reforms have been given little attention. It's pointless to discuss them at this time because the parties are discussing a different problem. Their reference points are not the same.
While there may be certain things in common such as computerized medical records the solutions will be drastically different when looked at from a private perspective compared to from a universal plan perspective. Something as basic as the type of computer and the program used may cause problems if every clinic/hospital/doctor chooses their own system. Are private enterprises which do not care for computerized medical records going to ensure their system is the best?
As long as medical services remain private enterprises there will always be problems making changes. The thousands of "owner/operators" will never agree on anything.
Once the concept of universal medical is solidly ingrained adjustments can and will be made. Other countries have had universal plans for 50 years and every year we've heard the doomsday call that those countries and plans are going to dissolve. Meanwhile, the people have enjoyed universal medical for the last 50 years! And let's not forget every country with a universal plan spends less per capita than the US. And, finally, let's not forget that not one country with a universal plan ever reverted to the old "pay or suffer" system.
What more proof or logic needs to be shown? The twisted road to a universal plan is due solely to those who oppose it, oppose it when all the evidence from all over the world for the last 50 years shows a universal plan is less expensive and is preferred by the vast majority of citizens.
The only people keeping the electorate ignorant of the actual road ahead are those who talk about "death panels" and "killing grandpa".
