Congress is Rushing into a Healthcare Disaster

There are plenty of things wrong with the system of health care in the United States but a close look at the existing Federal Health programs should give pause before committing another $trillion in spending.

The existing medicare system for the elderly is clearly unaffordable going forward. It is based upon a pyramid scheme for funding.

The existing medicaid system pays less than cost for most services and is the major driver of cost shifting in hospitals. That is the reason services for those who can pay are charged at 2 to 5 times their actual cost.

The Veteran's Administration (VA) hospital network provides an essential service for disabled and aging veterans but it is not comparable in cost or quality to the better community and private hospitals. It is a place you go to because it is free, not a place you go to if you have a choice. I am not dismissing the tremendous improvements made in recent years at the VA, but it is simply less than top quality private sector health care.

Due to their majority in the House and their super-majority in the Senate, the Democrats are able to rush a bad proposal forward without debate. I just watched another fear and gloom television commercial from Healthcare Now! http://www.healthcare-now.org/ ,which was followed by a commercial from Healthcare For America Now! http://www.healthcareforamericanow.org/ . These two separate but related groups only seem to differ with regards to direct focus upon a "single-payer" system which is done by Healthcare Now! but not Healthcare for America Now!.

These groups call any debate "obstructionism". These groups are heavily pro-labor union and anti-business. They are both fomenting crisis and calamity and urging that this administration initiative be rushed through now. These calls are similar to the tactics employed around economic stimulus where fear that the American people would disapprove of the contents of the American Recovery Act led to the act being rammed through Congress with no review of the final legislation.

These groups blame "for-profit" motives for the current system. How is it that when it comes to entertainment, information technology and much of what we call "innovation" a "for-profit" motive is understood to be the catalyst for investment and initiative but when it comes to health care it is "evil".

We all know that the current system is flawed but there is no crisis calling for a knee jerk response. There is time for debate. There is need for this legislation to be publicly vetted and for Congress and the administration to fully hear the American public.

The real costs of health care are driven ever upward by the disconnections that would create an efficient and effective health care system. There is too much bureaucracy in the existing system. The number of non health care deliverers (doctors, nurses, etc.) who are being paid with health care dollars is staggering. Due to the paperwork and administrative costs.

Much of the bureaucracy and waste in the existing system is driven by the sweep of HIPPA and other poorly constructed legislation combined with unending lawsuits that enrich law firms and a handful of "victims" and drive up extraordinary costs for each of us through adding to the cost of medicine, equipment and cover your ass procedures.

The Republicans derailed the Clinton health care initiatives of 1993 and did very little during the 14 years they controlled Congress to reform the current system. However, we already have examples that the government is unable to drive the cost of health care downward or be honest about properly funding it in the present let alone the future.