SICK HEALTHCARE

The date is June 13, 2009. The president and congress (controlled by Democrats) are in the process of creating a health care program to assure that every citizen in the United States has “Health Care Coverage.” To guarantee that end, a so-called “Public Plan” is being devised so people in need of health care services will have a choice between going to an insurance company for health care payments and going to the United States government for payment for their health care needs.

Public Plan is being opposed by potential losers if the plan comes into being and is being called a variety of names, from socialized medicine to government controlled health care and wastrel government intervention into the private sector. A battle is taking place in Congress, in the media, and in the minds of the American People. The trenches on the anti-Plan side are filled with money. The pro-Plan people also have financial backers who are far less wealthy or powerful. But they have fairness in their trenches.

The insurance industry attempted to derail this endeavor into being still-born by promising to reduce health care costs over the next ten years by one trillion dollars. They could certainly accomplish this by adding more “Deny” desks to their offices and to the offices of physicians who are their prostitutes. The denial of health care by the insurance industry to up their profits is as natural as banks upping their interest rates on loans.

The American Medical Association is opposed to government involvement in health care delivery out of concern that physicians will not make as much money as they believe they should. That is completely understandable, is it not?

Many health care providers oppose the plan in the belief that by ensuring health care for everyone, they will be paid less for their services than they are at present. The government has traditionally been slow to hand out money to anyone who does not have money. The providers are concerned they may fall into that powerless condition. Hospitals and clinics and those who care for the indigent have small weak lobbies in Washington. So they anticipate that the insurance companies will continue to rake in their huge profits while money is squeezed out of the health care delivery systems, as it is now by those so-called health care insurers. “So-called” because they really do nothing in the way of delivering health care to anyone.

But, perhaps the government will inch forward into fulfilling its role as government in providing for the basic needs of its citizenry; needs like roads and traffic lights, water and sewage disposal, and, YES, health care.