The Misinformation Of Health Care Reform
By: Doug Busselman, Executive Vice President
As the “debate” over health care continues, the “news” accounts surrounding the issue continue to help slant the real information away from fundamental truth and down the path for pro-governmental action. The companies providing health care insurance are vilified as being profit-greedy, discriminating corporations who need to be forced by government authority to do what’s right and pay everybody’s health insurance bills.
If the service provided by insurance companies was pre-paid health care, the conversation would and should be something other than what is portrayed in the conversation Washington, D.C. is attempting to present.
As a resident of a state where the principles of gambling are a central core of our economy, perhaps we can help others understand the way “insurance” is supposed to work. Health insurance is supposed to be a risk management tool – not a guaranteed, all expenses pre-paid health care system. The companies who sell health care policies are in some ways “betting” that they will have enough customers purchasing policies that won’t need immediate coverage to pay for the expenses of those who will. Picking the bets that make sense (evaluating pre-existing conditions) isn’t discrimination – it’s going with the odds and making business decisions that fit into the insurance model.
The government option that’s being considered isn’t and shouldn’t be thought of as an insurance program or a competitive alternative to what’s available from the private sector. If taxpayers are going to fund an automatic everything-paid health care, everybody can participate in system…that isn’t insurance and shouldn’t be thought of in that perspective.
What is being contemplated is really a system where citizens are forced to pay private companies and government (in the form of taxes) to provide health care benefits for anyone and everyone who requires health care. Instead of hiding behind the mis-stated “insurance” label, we should be considering the idea on the basis of what it really is.
As the “debate” over health care continues, the “news” accounts surrounding the issue continue to help slant the real information away from fundamental truth and down the path for pro-governmental action. The companies providing health care insurance are vilified as being profit-greedy, discriminating corporations who need to be forced by government authority to do what’s right and pay everybody’s health insurance bills.
If the service provided by insurance companies was pre-paid health care, the conversation would and should be something other than what is portrayed in the conversation Washington, D.C. is attempting to present.
As a resident of a state where the principles of gambling are a central core of our economy, perhaps we can help others understand the way “insurance” is supposed to work. Health insurance is supposed to be a risk management tool – not a guaranteed, all expenses pre-paid health care system. The companies who sell health care policies are in some ways “betting” that they will have enough customers purchasing policies that won’t need immediate coverage to pay for the expenses of those who will. Picking the bets that make sense (evaluating pre-existing conditions) isn’t discrimination – it’s going with the odds and making business decisions that fit into the insurance model.
The government option that’s being considered isn’t and shouldn’t be thought of as an insurance program or a competitive alternative to what’s available from the private sector. If taxpayers are going to fund an automatic everything-paid health care, everybody can participate in system…that isn’t insurance and shouldn’t be thought of in that perspective.
What is being contemplated is really a system where citizens are forced to pay private companies and government (in the form of taxes) to provide health care benefits for anyone and everyone who requires health care. Instead of hiding behind the mis-stated “insurance” label, we should be considering the idea on the basis of what it really is.
Posted by Doug Busselman at 10/4/2009 4:51 AM 
Categories: Nationalized Health Care
Tags: Socialized Medicine National Health Care Congress
Categories: Nationalized Health Care
Tags: Socialized Medicine National Health Care Congress
Comments