a worried man

Back in the 1960s people used to sit around in folk clubs or coffeehouses and listen to folk music. One of the better known groups at the time was The Kingston Trio. They used to sing a song that had the following line:

“It takes a worried man to sing a worried song”

I guess I must be a worried man, because out here on the road tonight, I am singing a worried song, again. But I guess that is just my nature. Tonight I am worried about healthcare again, specifically health insurance. The statistics show that last year a higher percentage of people in this country went without healthcare insurance and I’m sure the numbers of uninsured will rise again this year. Fewer people have it and it is more expensive for those who do.

I read a story on Yahoo! a while back that indicated many public universities are requiring students to carry health insurance, because the schools are getting stuck with bills at college hospitals from treating uninsured students who don’t pay the bills. This is an example of what is happening in our society, in microcosm. Hospitals will treat patients without health insurance, because as a society we are not yet to the point where we will discard the ill to the trash dumpster and the landfill, based on the ability to pay (of course, with four more years of Bush, who knows?). The University hospitals apparently follow that same guideline and eventually it is the University that absorbs the cost of the uninsured. Ultimately, it would be the tuition-paying students and parents who would bear the cost, because not-for-profit institutions would have to recoup the losses in tuition costs or fees, somehow.

In society in general, the hospitals that bear the cost of the uninsured would have to recoup their losses by raising the prices of services which would be borne by patients and the insurance companies who would recoup their costs by raising premium prices.

In both cases, who ends up paying the cost? You do.

I understand why the universities are requiring health care coverage. If everyone is covered, then it lowers the cost for everyone over the long run. Most universities have a designated provider who offers affordable plans that don’t require reams of forms to fill out and massive back and forth between the applicant and the insurance company and frequent rejection of those who are not at their peak athletic prime. Actuarially, college students are young, healthy and easily insurable and can be covered at bargain rates. College is an option, so students who choose not to be covered can change schools.

In society in general, the health insurance companies will exclude everyone at risk, so it is not possible, at any price, to obtain insurance that provides thorough coverage. Therefore we cannot mandate that everyone in the country be covered. As the number of uninsured grows-- especially those at risk-- the cost of insurance will continue to skyrocket. In a capitalistic society, reasonable businessmen will eventually conclude that providing health care coverage for their employees is not a good investment and will discontinue offering it. It is not now nor has it ever been a question of if the government will get involved in the providing of healthcare insurance, but rather when the government will get involved. The last thing I want to see is the government get more involved in anything, but there are things that require a scale that only government can provide, like building reservoirs, interstate highway systems and waging wars, and this is war.

Government shouldn’t actually provide health care insurance. They should offer us a menu of plans provided by private companies, who would make a reasonable profit. The government should regulate that everyone be able to purchase coverage from the company of their choosing and should subsidize the cost of covering the “uninsurable.” Those who chose not to participate would not be required to, but it would increase the number of people covered and bring down the cost of insurance. It would also reduce the amount of money you and I are charged to cover the uninsured. This is not radically different than what Truman proposed in 1948, what Clinton proposed in the mid 1990s and what Kerry proposed last year. It is technology that is almost sixty years old, but somehow we have managed to discard fiscal common sense for all of that time and managed to spend ourselves into an unnecessary hole. It was the congress that pissed away our monetary savings when Truman and Clinton tried to show some common sense and it was basically the Bush administration that defeated the Kerry plan.

Health care coverage is a lot like cell phones. Years ago the cell phone was an expensive luxury for only the very rich. When usage of cell phones began to gain popularity, the prices came down. That caused more people to be able to afford them, which, in turn caused the price to come down more. Simply based on economies of scale, cell phones have gotten so inexpensive that many people are discarding their land-based phones because it is cheaper to use the cellular ones. If health insurance were available for all, the cost would come down the same way cell phone pricing has.

If money grew on trees or there was a steady flow of cash into the government coffers, then there would be no need to worry about this, but the truth is that there is a limited supply of money and our government owes it to us to stop throwing ours away. The only logical reason that universal healthcare is not available is that someone has a financial motivation not to allow it to happen. You may recall that during the Clinton administration, there was an advertising campaign that helped to turn public opinion against universal healthcare. That campaign was very effective, but it was an act of treason. Unfortunately, no one was ever charged, tried and executed for this anti-American act, to the best of my knowledge. It did more harm to our economy and to America in a short period of time than a million Osama Bin Laden’s could do on the most treacherous days of their lives.

Let’s put it on the table. We have run and hid from reality long enough. It is time to stand up and face our obligations before the weight of the obligation is too heavy for us to be able to shoulder it.

Then, we could stop worrying and get some sleep, here in Jimbo's world.