The Cost Issue is MIA

by aflcio2008

Matthew Piccolo has a good summary of some of the major issues that are attached to the current health care proposal. That seemed like a good complementary article to what I wanted to point out about the Health Care Reform Freight Train™ speeding through the halls of Congress – there is a major issue that has failed to be attached to the current discussion – cost reduction.

Back in ancient history (2007 through mid 2008), while the presidential election was in full swing but before the economy and the urgent need to bail out anyone with pockets deep enough to hold quantities of money starting with “$” and ending in “Billion”, health care was seen as the most important domestic issue on the campaign trail – does anyone remember that time? If you do you should remember that one of the few points of consensus on the issue between all parties was that health care was too expensive and that any attempt at a solution would have to include measures to cut the overall amount that we spend on health care. Here is a clip from Obama’s campaign website on the issue of healthcare:

we want to make health insurance work for people and businesses, not just insurance and drug companies.

• Reform the health care system:
  We will take steps to reform our system by expanding coverage, improving quality, lowering costs, honoring patient choice and holding insurance companies accountable.
• Improve preventative care:
  In order to keep our people healthy and provide more efficient treatment we need to promote smart preventative care, like cancer screenings and better nutrition, and make critical investments in electronic health records, technology that can reduce errors while ensuring privacy and saving lives.

(emphasis added)

I won’t play stupid by saying that I am surprised that the president wants to get this done fast, or that it is a less than perfect implementation of the ideal he campaigned on. But it is unacceptable that he should promote a “solution” in such a hurry that does not even address the major problems that everyone acknowledges in the system.

This solution is a heavy shackle on American businesses and citizens (creating mandates for both), but it completely ignores the actual problem of high costs. We are committed to getting insurance for everyone while ignoring the fact that having insurance has not been enough for many people who go bankrupt over health care bills despite the fact that they have insurance. I don’t think that we can completely eliminate that problem, but I also don’t think that we can claim to have even tried to fix the system before we have addressed that specific issue.

I’m getting tired of hearing Democrats accuse the Republicans of stalling and not offering any alternatives while studiously ignoring the alternatives that many Republicans have been offering. I have tried be patient and not complain too loudly against the Presidents approach, but I think it’s time for some balance to the press coverage of the issue. People need to understand that even the president was happy to stall on reforms that Republicans were proposing while he was still in the Senate. I starting to like the coverage Jim DeMint is giving to that forgotten history.

Republicans are stalling in the hope that they will give the people enough time to digest the facts that this is politics, not problem solving. It’s time for voters to get willing to kick their representatives out of office (Republicans and Democrats) and replace them as often as necessary until they get people who will solve the problems rather than just playing the game.