Health Care Debate in Alabama
As in every state, there has been a flurry of activity also here in Alabama from the "grassroots" advocates of President Obama's public health care plan. I have noticed in Alabama how remarkably disciplined their messages has been through letters to the editor to radio talk shows. Language, as Frank Luntz has tirelessly demonstrated, is crucial is this long, hot summer health care debate. The public plan/single payer advocates are on message, though on a albeit dreadfully one.
Since President Obama has stressed that his public plan is, by his own account, "ambitious" we have admonished all to really take him at his word! Indeed, the Obama "ambitious" moniker is cause for great alarm.
Not to fear, those of us that have advocated a market-based, patient-centered health care are getting through despite all the bias of the mainstream press. Why? We are just very noisy, have facts on our side and have learned to use the same tools of technology that the left has so capably used in recent times.
Here is a piece I wrote specifically for Alabama, The Summer Health Care Debate: Be Careful What You Wish For.
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Posts on Innovation
We’ve had our fill of market-based, patient-centered health care which seems to be code words for exclude the bad risks and deny benefits to the others. Time for a change. How about if we get on the same side.
If I need work done on my car, my mechanic loves me. If I need plumbing work done in my home, my plumber loves me. However, when we need health care, health insurance companies do their best to avoid us. That is why market driven approaches to health insurance have not worked. Been there – done that.
Seriously? The reason your mechanic and your plumber loves you is because, except for catastrophic events such as a collision, you, not an insurance company, pay them. If we depended on insurance companies for plumbing and auto expenses (gas insurance?) as routinely as we depend on health insurance, we may have some of the same problems with plumbing and auto ownership.
By enacting laws allow for things such as HRAs, FSAs, and HSAs, government, at one time, opened the door to make it easier to put the patient directly in control of health care spending. Under both the House and Senate bills, that door will be slammed shut. I don’t see how being hostage to public sector bureaucrats and politicians is better than being subject to insurance company bureaucrats.