The Rationale Behind Health Insurance Rights

With public support turning against President Obama's National Health Insurance ambitions, the administration has made the decision to target those "evil" health insurance companies in an attempt to turn the Health Care debate into the proverbial us versus them debate. Unfortunately, if the American public would just think about the arguments put forth by the administration they would soon realize that the irrational thought process behind President Obama's arguments.

High Medical Costs, Evil Profits and Greedy Insurers:

The health care industry currently makes up between 20% and 26% of our national economy. As such, it would stand to reason that if 25% of our economy was based up health care related products and services, then we would expect to see a similar amount of our personal budgets being spent on such products and services. Yet, year after year we hear politicians complain about the high cost of health care and throw out astronomical figures as to how much each American family pays for such services.

The White House has now made the decision to demonize the the Health Insurance companies based upon underwriting standards and profitability. Yet, without profits, these companies would cease to exist and without underwriting standards the premiums you pay today would double, triple or quadruple the current premiums. We hear a sampling of horror stories every day and dealing with health insurance carriers can be a pain in rear, yet can the government do a better job. Consider this...we have Medicare and we pay for it, and pay for it and pay for it...In fact, in order to provide coverage for the approximately 20% of the nation that receives Medicare benefits each working American must contribute close to 2.5% of their gross pay. That means that the average American worker pays over $1,000 a year into the Medicare system. But that's not all...Medicare recipients pay just shy of $1,200 per year for their part B coverage, and despite these premiums paid by both the recipient, you and me, they must still purchase a private Medicare supplement if they wish bridge the enormous deductibles and gaps that exist within the system. Those Medicare Supplements policies will range in premium from $1,300-$4,000 per year (without a supplemental policy, a recipient could face over $20,000 per year in deductibles and out-of pocket expenses).

So can the government do it better? No... not when you face the reality that despite this government option, the fed still relies upon private insurers to bridge the gaps in coverage. No... the government has not done it better when they have treated the Medicare system as a piggy bank...holding back no reserves and creating a situation in which the system is failing and going bankrupt. So why now, would any American believe that we should expand the government's role when they have utterly failed in this endeavour.

Now consider, expanding Medicare to include a greater portion of the population and multiply out the tax and premium burden across the population. Take the taxes and premiums paid for medicare and multiply them 5 time over to cover the entire population...now are you starting to see how much Obamacare will truly cost?

The Right to Health Insurance and Right To Profits?

Politics and Health Care are a deadly combination and this administration is now using the profits of health insurance carriers as a weapon against those companies. We have been led to believe that we all have a right to health insurance and that health insurance companies are unjustly profiting by our need for their services. As a result, their is a portion of the population who believes that a government takeover of the industry is the only way to protect this right to health care. But consider this...if we all have a right to equal health care, as the administration has suggested, then we must also have a right to equality in other areas, such as life insurance, investments and home ownership. Therefore, shouldn't the government provide us all with equal disability and life insurance benefits, sufficient to take care of our families in case of disaster. After all, prior to 2005, the death of a family member was the number one cause of home mortgage foreclosures. Additionally, those evil banks and investment companies unjustly profit from fees that are not equal and "unfair". So therefore, the government should takeover the investment industry and offer uniform investment products free of such unfair and unbalanced fees. But why stop there, the government should provide equality housing...vehicles...pay and every other aspect of our lives.

It sounds ludicrous? Right? But its been tried...it's referred to as communism, and for every socialistic step that we take down that path, the ideals and principles of our forefathers further crumble and are lost to time.

The Uninsured?

We hear astronomical figures of 30, 40, 50 million Americans who are uninsured, but is this true? No...its not. The premise of the Presidents health care plans are based upon coverage of the uninsured. According to the president, covering these uninsured Americans will lower health care costs for everyone. Yet the truth is that there is a very large difference between uninsured Americans and uncovered Americans. There are very few uncovered Americans. For those who are uninsured we have government programs in place to provide health insurance coverage. The first is Medicaid for those who cannot afford health insurance and the second is the federally funded CHIP programs that exist in every state for those who unable to obtain private coverage due to extensive health conditions. In addition, Medicare also provides coverage for certain disabled Americans under 65. What you are left with, is a very small number of Americans who can afford coverage, who have significant income, yet CHOOSE not to purchase coverage. So if we, as taxpayers, are already subsidizing for those who cannot afford coverage and those who are unable to obtain coverage, then why should we be asked to subsidize those who choose not to be covered. Additionally, if nearly all of these uninsured Americans are covered under existing federal programs then why is there a need for a "government" option?

The Private Health Insurance Industry Cannot Survive!

If you were given the option of continuing to pay premiums for your current coverage (which will change under the current bills), or switching to a government option that you are already paying for, which one would you choose? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that millions of Americans will abandon their current coverage in lieu of the perceived "free" government option. The results will be devastating to the private insurance industry and create a domino effect of companies abandoning their health products and being forced into bankruptcy. As the industry shrivels...the pool of privately insured will shrink...premiums will skyrocket...companies will stop offering health insurance benefits and even more Americans will be forced onto a government option until no other option exists. That is the mentality that this legislation will create and despite the rhetoric...human nature will prevail and the health insurance industry will disappear.

Your elected leaders have a responsibility to REPRESENT YOU, not the interests of their political party or their own ideological beliefs. The American people have turned against Obamacare and it is time that you call your congressman or congresswoman and voice your opinion. We are in the midst of a recession with no way to pay for this legislation and no true idea as to the costs of such a plan. We have 535 members of congress who have not read this legislation and more importantly could not tell you who wrote this legislation, yet half of them are prepared to vote "yes" to the current bills. This is not a representative republic in action...this is not what our founding fathers envisioned for our system of government and not what our fore bearers envisioned for the future of the descendants. The more we read the bills that have been presented, the more we find that will prove to be devastating to this nation. And remember this...the reason why there is such a rush to pass such legislation is because the president and the power brokers know that once these plans are in place, there is little opportunity to reverse them. Just consider how difficult reform of Social Security or Medicare has been? Does anyone really believe that we could just flip the switch once it has been turned on?

J Brown
August 5th, 2009