Keep private insurers in the health care mix
Health care heal thyself. The only known cure is a free market. Can you imagine what would happen to your local grocer if the government hijacked control over the way he does business because it was believed that sooner or later everyone in the U.S. would need what he sells?
In fact, everyone does need food to survive. Your grocer or grocery chain would soon become an uncompetitive business that would have to immediately give free products to 20 million illegal aliens, hire ten times the staff to keep up with the paperwork from new regulations, and receive permission from the government before it could add new products or open a new store in a new geographical area.
For these reasons alone, why would anyone believe that putting government in charge of health care will solve its current problems? Consumers are ultimately the rulers of the U.S. economy, and when they rule, prices fall while service, selection, and quality improves. They do this by deciding what to buy, where to buy it, and what to pay.
Health care providers are caring people who have sacrificed much of their life to become a provider. Most own or operate or work for a small business. Most do not want to work for the government and will thrive in a free market environment if allowed to do so. Certainly government will play a role in health care, helping the indigent, setting standards, supporting research, and ensuring competition. Government should be a referee, but not a player on the field, because it is a lousy player.
Since Congress created Medicare and Medicaid in 1965, spending has spiraled upward out of control. Like most government efforts to be a player, these programs are headed to bankruptcy. It is clear that giving government a greater role in the delivery of and payment for health care is the exact wrong direction to go.
Action items: First let's re-double our battle to block passage of the Obama-Pelosi health care fiasco. If Congress succeeds in ramming it through against the people's wishes, then one of the first things to do is put up blockades against waste, fraud and abuse because it is always a problem when government pays.
Next is to enact tort reform that governs lawsuits. Doctors and hospitals have to pay huge insurance premiums and double up on tests and procedures, expensive and unneeded, just to defend against lawsuits. Pharmaceutical companies need to have their patents protected overseas. These companies spend millions of dollars in order to develop new medicines, and then overseas companies rip off their products and sell it at a fraction of the price. That single action would keep prices down here at home.
Another money saver the Democrats refuse to put in the bill is to allow insurance companies to compete by selling across state lines to give consumers competitive pricing.
Government agencies that provide health care should give private, for-profit health care providers a chance to offer those services by competitive bid. The cost of hiring public employees would decrease, passing on savings to all health care providers and consumers.
As health care providers become more competitive in the market, with increased income, they will be able to provide more jobs with good benefits. All California taxpayers must come to the table and decide what is affordable health care and what are the responsibilities of the government to provide health care to its citizens versus personal responsibility to provide their own health care on a fee for service basis.
Finally, while it is difficult to address, confronting illegal immigration would go a long way in fixing this problem. Legal immigration helps to identify the needs of each new immigrant while protecting the physical and financial health of our citizens. California should do all it can to let us choose what we want, where we will get it, and how much we will pay. Why don't liberals get it? They do, but that's not their concern because power and control is their game. We, the people, change that with our vote.
Dean Haddock of Bakersfield is the executive director of Community Counseling and Psychological Services. His website is www.drdeanhaddock.com
