Options on Health Care
1. Do nothing; 44,000+ people die each year from preventable deaths and the cost of policies for individuals and businesses will continue to increase, especially for small business.
2. Do nothing; people who need coverage are denied it [pre-existing conditions, etc.], complicating their future health or bankrupting them if they pay for it themselves.
3. Do nothing; and never again will the issue come up in Congress. If the Democrats can’t pass their view of health care/insurance reform this year, they’ll never do it.
4. Do nothing; give Republican members of Congress the power to stop any of President Obama’s proposals, appointees [Supreme Court and otherwise]. Invalidate the election last November.
5. Do nothing; watch Democratic senators, of all kinds, get defeated in the next elections.
1. Pass reform without a Public Option: have some form of health care/insurance reform [44,000+ people get to live if they can afford to buy their insurance from an insurance company], but no competition for the insurance companies.
2. Pass reform without a Public Option: have reform, but also have the government subsidize in full all people needing access to coverage - in effect, using non-Public Option health care reform to underwrite profits for the insurance companies. Almost a form of socialism, if you think about it. That’s what Senator Grassley is for.
3. Pass reform without a Public Option: cover more people, subsidize the insurance companies who will be covering them, ensure profits for those insurance companies, prevent any competition between companies since they will all have more money rolling in from the government, resulting in higher costs and eventually bankrupting the government while allowing insurance and health care executives to make even more money and retire wealthy.
1. Pass reform with a Public Option: have some form of health care [44,000+ people get to live] and have some type of competition for coverage between the “public option” entity or choices and the insurance companies. How else will competition be fostered?
2. Pass reform with a Public Option: have some form of health care and because there is competition, the cost of insurance and health care decreases or stabilizes. Unless of course, the people against the public option are right and competition won’t result in lower or stable prices, which calls into question the free market economy premise entirely.
3. Pass reform with a Public Option: have some form of health care coverage and and have competition with the insurance company provision of coverage, and use that to contain the rising cost of health care/insurance, while cutting down on bankruptcies of people and small business.
I know what should happen and hope it will.
