Health Care Economics

If nothing else, the political process in this country is exciting when it gets heated up. I haven't seen such commotion since I don't know when. Congressmen and senators are having town hall meetings across country attempting to sell a healthcare bill that isn't quite fully written, several versions of which are in excess of 1000 pages and written in a legalese that would make any laymen's head spin. It is enough to make anybody anxious about the future of our health care system.

President Obama tells us that if we don't do something now, the current system will implode. Politicians are calling citizens who disagree with them "Nazis," and the democrats say that all those people that show up at the demonstrations and town hall meetings have been put up to it by the Republican Party. The press and the comedians are as divided as the parties as is hyperbole that comes with any emotionally charged discussion.

So with that said, I would like to take a more simplistic and logical view of the health care issue in the context of our current economic situation. Our current situation appears to be this:

1. 85% of the people have health insurance and are satisfied with the policy they have;

2. The country is currently 7 trillion dollars in debt, (approximately $23,000 of debt for every man, women and child in the county), and that debt is projected to go to 9 trillion dollars over the next ten years.

3. The latest count of illegal aliens currently in the United States is approximately 12 million. When these people visit our hospitals and clinics more often than not they cannot afford to pay the bill.

4. Hospitals by law cannot refuse treatment because of inability to pay. A double edged sword in that, we are showing our generosity to those less fortunate, but the hospitals pass their costs for this unreimbursed mandated care on to the patients who can pay, again raising medical costs and insurance rates. This law turns out to be a mandated subsidy for the poor paid for by the responsible paying patrons of the hospitals.

5. This country is lawsuit crazy. Medical malpractices suits, both frivolous and justified, contribute once again to increasing medical costs and medical insurance costs not only because of the cost of the suits and the large and often time excessive awards, but also through the extreme defensive medical practices that doctors and hospitals employ in order to avoid law suits and avoid loosing law suits.

6. Projections are that both Medicare and Social Security will be paying out more money than they take in a few years. (This item alone should give one pause when considering the resolution of the problem through government programs).

7. The unemployment rate in the country is currently 9.6%.

When considering the above items, why would anyone want a government run health care system? It would be just more bureaucratic waste and inefficiency. The healthcare bills currently in Congress are a smoke screen for the government's failure to control our boarders, provide meaningful tort reform, control wasteful spending and represent its citizens honestly. As it looks now, if anything passes. it will more than likely deal a catastrophic blow to the economy when implemented.

I believe we need to focus on the cause of the problem, not on the symptoms.

• Let's fix the tort system.
• Let's enforce the borders and remove all illegal aliens from the country.
• Let's cut corporate taxes so that corporations find it profitable to have their companies in the United States.
• Let's implement health saving accounts for standard medical care and have insurance for the big ticket items.
• Let's take insurance away from employers and put it in the hands of consumers.
• Let's put America back to work so that more people can have health insurance.

If we do these things I believe, medical services and medical insurance costs will come down, that in turn will help the economy to recover, and that will get more people covered.

Joseph L. Conigliaro

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