I started writing this after I read an op-ed piece by John Stossel (http://www.townhall.com/columnists/JohnStossel/2007/10/10/medical_competition_works_for_patients).  Not to say this piece was the first to spark my interest in the so-called health care debate.  That passion was ignited when I moved out of my mother’s house and started to pay for my own medical expenses (you wanna take how much out of each paycheck?).

     I thought this was a great article as it pertains to health care in America, especially with the constant talk by the Democratic presidential candidates about the "universal” health care coverage they promise to bring in 2009, and the anger expressed by so many citizens over what is considered to be a crisis of unacceptable magnitude (mainly that 40 million people go without health insurance).  If you don’t want to read it, or can’t find it, the column argues that privatization and competition in health coverage benefits the recipient(s) better than any single-payer, government run system would/will.

     Like it or not, health insurance is a necessary evil right now.  A lot of people hate having to pay for something they may not use, not to mention the paperwork involved in actually making a claim, and the confusing standards of what will and will not be covered, but the alternative (not having any hedge against medical emergencies) is usually seen as much worse. 

     Now imagine if the Government, not a private company amongst other competing firms (a situation that promotes price competitiveness, customer satisfaction quotas, and R&D for cheaper and more advanced technologies) was in charge of such a large and important endeavor as guaranteed health coverage for some 300 million Americans, and too many illegal aliens (that is another essay all together).  Can you think of anything the government does in an efficient, cost-effective manor?  Do you hear a lot of people praise Washington’s current health coverage packages, Medicare and Medicaid’s, effectiveness?  Do you feel comfortable getting the Government’s “okay” before you go to the doctor or hospital for testing or surgery, hoping the list for appendectomies is short enough to allow you into the operating room in the next couple of days (this is what happens in Cuba, Canada, and in European counties with single payer systems)?

     Not too many people are happy with their health coverage, to be sure, but our current health insurance system is surely better than the proposed alternative, and may be a privy to what we can expect with socialized medicine.   Currently, groups of people pool their resources (voluntarily) in order to share costs over time and afford medical services.  This is basically how socialized medicine works, except that some people pay nothing at all…ever, and still reap the rewards.  Government run health care is heralded as gratis, but as economists like to say; if you think health care is expensive now, wait until it’s free.  The Government doesn’t make money; it takes it, …from you, at a rate they decide is acceptable.  Instead of paying an insurance company, you’d be paying a largely unaccountable government, swayed not by competition, but by polling data, special interest groups, and power. 

     With exciting new companies like Rediclinic, Take Care Health Clinic, and Minuteclinic popping up, offering affordable medical services without involving the hassles associated with health insurance companies, we will soon see just what private companies can offer us when competition is allowed to flourish.  These places offer a great response to what ales the American people.  For instance, at twenty-six, I really don’t need heath insurance for anything except catastrophic events leading to extended stays at the hospital.  I seldom fall ill, but when I do it isn’t serious.  Unfortunately, the option to buy “catastrophic” insurance is unavailable right now.  I am forced to buy the same package and pay the same premium at work as a seventy-five year old woman who frequents the doctor more often than I change my oil. Come to think of it, I recognize the guy that changes my oil, I couldn’t tell you who my primary physician is.

     If insurance companies were allowed to sell their services across State lines, without restriction, a larger pool of people my age would form, making emergency-only insurance more available, feasible and/or affordable, and competition would flourish  (think what cell phone companies did to the communication business).  Those persons could then visit places like Take Care Health Clinics in Walgreen’s for minor medical procedures, (ear-aches, strep-throats, flu shots, etc.) pay $25 or $50, and call it a day, reserving their insurance for more necessary events, all the while cutting overall health-care costs and bringing down prices.

     It is important to note, companies whose hands were tied by the government when pay caps were set in the early part of the twentieth century were first to offer health insurance as part of a benefit package.   Because they couldn't offer competitive pay, they had to invent other incentives, i.e. health insurance, to lure sought after employees from their competitors.  Therefore, if you are going to be mad at someone over the heath care “crisis” in America, our own Government Representatives deserve the blunt of the blame.  Let’s “stop the bleeding” (pun intended) and tell the government they have done enough…like it or not.