Unaffordable Health Care?

Well, we all know that the Republicans have a good chance at taking the House of Representatives in November.  We also know that they want to repeal the Health Care Law because it’s going to cost more than we can afford.  But here’s my question for the Republicans;  how is it going to cost more? 

Their argument sounds like this to me; let’s say you want to buy two half-bushels of apples because you want to give one of them to a friend.  But you go to the orchard and they tell you that they only sell the apples in full bushels.  You tell them that last year they sold them in half bushels and they were $6.00 per half bushel.  They tell you that this year a full bushel is selling for $12.00.  You tell them that you can’t afford to buy a whole bushel for $12.00.  You can only afford to buy two half bushels for $6.00 each.

Here’s my premise and I hope someone can convince me that I’m wrong.  We have several million uninsured people receiving medical services from emergency rooms for free.  The hospitals then take the costs of that free service and spread it into the other costs of services that are provided to insured people.  (That’s why a hospital room costs several hundred dollars a day.)  The insurance companies then pay the covered costs and the insured people pay their co-pays, which also have the inflated rates from the emergency room services.  Then the insurance companies calculate their rates to cover their claims, administration costs and profit margins.  They then pass them off to us.  So we’re already paying for medical services to uninsured people in our insurance premiums. 

It’s kind of like the guy who visits the local pizza parlor and is asked if he wants his pizza cut into eight pieces.  He says, no, he’s not that hungry.  Just cut it into four pieces.  We are being hoodwinked into believing that we can’t afford to cover all Americans when in fact, we’re already doing it.  It’s just that this way, the insurance lobbies keep the campaign funds flowing to their favorite politicians.

I have a suspicion.  I think our reluctance to think clearly about healthcare coverage in America has a lot to do with confusing social with fiscal conservatism.  What I mean by that is, why should we provide insurance to all “those illegal’s” and “lazy welfare cheats” who jam up the emergency rooms?  They don’t deserve insurance like “decent Americans”.  Please don’t blame me for what I just wrote.  I’m just quoting what I’ve heard people say, Republican’s mostly.  And yes, I do know some Republicans.

I think that what is being hyped as fiscal responsibility is really social conservatism gone amuck.  I too, don’t like the abuses of many of the social programs that we have in America.  I don’t like seeing the deficit grow.  I don’t like bigger and bigger government.  But I also admit that many of the programs that we are currently funding benefit as many Republicans as Democrats and Independents.  We want the government to cut taxes, spend less but not touch any program that benefits us, like Medicare and social security.

Come on folks.  A bit of intellectual honesty would go a long way to clarify what we want for ourselves because we think we deserve it and what we want to withhold from other people because we can’t afford it.  No, I’m really not a socialist.  I just remember some of the lessons that the good nuns at St. Mary’s taught me – oh so many years ago.

Robert DeFilippis