This is where I part company with President Obama. I believe that his proposed Universal Health Care idea is deeply flawed and potentially disastrous - not as a matter of concept, but merely as a matter of execution. He should realize that he doesn't quite have the solution yet, and back off on it until he does. A truly good solution will find supporters on both sides.
The problem, as I see it, is that by in essence creating a governmental overlay on a deeply flawed system, you are not encouraging the system to be corrected - you are merely enforcing its flaws and making them worse by throwing tax payer money at it. The problem with the health care system is not the doctors or the technology. We have the finest health care system in the world. But we also have the most expensive. Making health care mandatory doesn't make health care more affordable, it makes it less affordable by driving up the costs of basic goods and services. Don't agree?
Let's look at what government backed student loans have done for college tuition fees over the last thirty years. When tuition was high and college was seen as an elite luxury for the upper middle class and wealthy, the US government started guaranteeing student loans. As more people were able to afford college, the attendance increased, and the costs increased as well. The more people who went to college, the more expensive it got, and the more watered down the value of a college degree became. Its to the point now where parents have to save almost all their lives just to insure that their children can attend a college in order to get a degree that has become mandatory and increasingly worthless. The only ones profiting from such expansion the college system are those who finance them. We've taken a system that was designed for those who could afford it and we've guaranteed with tax dollars that everyone could receive it without first creating a system where we could control the costs, and as a result, the costs have skyrocketed.
If the government guarantees medical coverage by offering government backed insurance, then there will be no one to stop medical companies from raising their costs. The only thing keeping medical costs in check now is that the costs have to be somewhat realistic in terms of supply and demand. With guaranteed money out there, the medical companies can raise their costs and expect that the government will cover any difference between what you can afford and what they charge. Where's the pressure to keep costs down? There will be none because all of the money will be guaranteed by Uncle Sam.
And this lie about letting everyone keep their current insurance coverage? Sure, you'll be able to keep it. Until the costs for that insurance sky-rocket and you're forced to go with the cheaper government option because that's all you can afford. So, in the end, the system will right itself and those that can afford good medical benefits will get good medical coverage, and those that can't, will not. How is that any different than what we have now? Well, the major difference is that with this new plan, medical companies will become rich off of tax payer's money.
Let's face it, any plan for universal health coverage that doesn't also include some way to control high medical costs is a disaster waiting to happen. And that's why I can't support the President on this program.
He needs to go back to square one.
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