Health Care Reform: Voice Your Concern

The health care system is so inefficient on so many levels. While the idea of universal health care system is a good one, the reality is a lot more challenging. Perhaps creating a “wellness” insurance, incenting people to stay healthy could be an adjunct to ” health care”, thereby offering discounts on health care premiums.

I think Luke has a good point here. Preventative medicine should be a priority and currently our system is built upon reactive medicine. I believe that there should be better incentives for individuals to see us to prevent the onset of preventable conditions.

Stating the above, I do not believe Universal coverage is the way to go. I believe we need to keep inusrances privatized but make them more competative against each other (allow them to compete across state lines as well as the inability to deny coverage due to preexisting conditions). This will eventually force them to spend money on preventing the onset of conditions in healthy individuals because their costs will inflate to cover those who already have developed conditions. Creating a Universal coverage, such as Medicare, will have 1 payer determining reimbursement rates, coverage, visit limits, etc. You have to have competition to prevent this.

The problem with keeping people healthy is they live to die with more expensive end of life care. Our country has some very difficult changes a head. Status quo will not be maintainable.

Whats so wrong with doing what many other nations are already doing? If you’re old and have a bad heart, you die. If you don’t take care of yourself your entire life and have poor health because of that why should you cost everyone else. I believe there must be a shift in the way our society thinks. Until people are willing to truley take resposibility for their choices this conversation will continue for ages. Univeral coverage won’t fix it and the private sector has no interest in fixing it. So until we are all willing to tell our loved one “at 5′2″ and 300lbs your heart his failing or have diabetes and losing your leg or had a stroke at a young age is because of the choices you have made. Like a friend of mine once told me, “I have never accidentally eaten something” . Until we are all ready to put that pressure on all of those around us people will rather take a pill or “just be fixed” and that costs all of us in the long run. This is not meant for health issues that are not in the control of the individual.