Thanks for stopping by and voicing your opinion.

I have no problem with regulation, especially when it is done properly. I think there are many reforms that could have a huge positive impact on healthcare. Some of these President Obama touched on in his State of the Union speach and I covered in my earlier post Fixing Health Care. The most obvious of these are Tort Reform and getting rid of the state barriers for insurance. I would also like to see a 30-day claims payment limit and portable coverage.

My problem is with the Government trying to take over health care, when they haven’t done such a great job of running what they have right now, including Medicare. We can’t afford trillions of dollars of waste, fraud and corruption added to our health care costs. Nor can we afford to lose our choice of providers. Most voters don’t want this and they have spoken at the polls.

What I believe is going to happen over time is that health insuance companies are going to be disintermediated and replaced by direct providers. Insurance companies add a lot of cost and little benefit to the health care system. And, I would rather have my premiums go directly to the provider, which is why I have selected Kaiser and Bristol Park for my family.

Hi Bret, first time visitor – linked over from Fools and Sages – I think what you’ve written here points to the great big fat misunderstanding about healthcare reform. If what you say is really what most Americans want, then most Americans need to understand that private enterprise is not in business to give us what we want.

Private enterprise (e.g. insurers) are in business to make a profit. They can’t make the profits they want if they cover everybody for one low price, pay every claim, and let you carry your insurance for a lifetime. They only make the kind of profits they want by doing what they are doing. And that is why the government has been trying, for a long time now, to reform (i.e. regulate) the system. It’s not socialism to regulate industries.

Meanwhile, almost everyone over 65 uses Medicare and they fight like cats at the mere mention of reducing Medicare’s coverages (which, need I mention, include such medical non-necessities as Viagra, gastric bypass, and proven-ineffective back surgeries). Hello – that’s government-run health insurance! Which all of us under 65 are paying for! While we simultaneously pay our own healthcare insurance premiums! Yay!

If Americans really want portable health insurance, then they need to buy their own high-deductible policies and not depend on what they get (or not) from employers. And then they need to save up the amount of their deductible in a Health Savings Account.

If they want “affordable” healthcare, they need to not join HMOs and see two doctors every time they have a cough and demand antibiotics for a head cold.

If they want to not be denied based on pre-existing conditions, they need to buy their own insurance early in life, and not wait until they are 40 and have been smoking & drinking & eating junk food for 25 years.

If they want to have lower lifetime health costs, they need to eat real food, get some exercise, get more sleep, and stop watching so much TV.

If you really want an easy and meaningful reform to push through Congress, let’s push this one: everyone, no matter what their health insurance, should be eligible to start a Health Savings Account. It shouldn’t be limited to those with high-deductible plans.

But calling it “socialism” to try to regulate an industry that manifestly needs to be regulated is unnecessary and inflammatory, and it really brings down the level of discourse.
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The good news is the Government Health Care bill is toast. Nancy Pelosi has admitted they don’t have the votes to pass it, since Brown was elected.

The bad news is that we aren’t getting any kind of reform to lower health care costs. And, Americans could definitely use lower health care costs.

The Democrats will definitely pay dearly for not listening this election. Like for example, those “town hall” meetings for healthcare, where they basically ignored everyone who showed up to tell them what a terrible idea it was. How could they be so out of touch with the voters? Even with a super-majority in the Senate, a big majority in the House and the Presidency, they sure didn’t get much done. The one thing I am proud of President Obama and the Democrats are the consumer protections, like the CARD Act.

I also hope we lose some Republican incumbents, especially in the primaries. They have gone from being the budget watchdogs to the “arrogance & corruption” party. Besides starting wars, the only thing they are good at lately is letting big business rip everyone off. I was a Reagan Republican and it was an amazing transformation of Government. But, the GOP has completely lost it’s way. In an obvious vacuum of leadership and with huge problems for the Democrats, they can’t even field a decent candidate. Maybe, they can run Brown for President. He’s the only winner I see right now.

I think the only difference between the Democrats and Republicans right now are which special interests they represent. Unless we get a viable third party, campaign finance reform or a serious turnover of incumbents, I suspect we will never get a balanced budget or fair representation.

And, I’m an optimist.

My only disagreement is in your prediction that the pain at the polls this November will be felt across party lines.

I think the great majority, if not all, of the Republicans outside of the Northeast who lost their conservative libertarian religion have been gradually losing their seats over time since 2004 – or changed party affiliation (e.g., Arlan Spector).

It is the Dems who will pay dearly this November for not listening.

Now, the big question is, will the electorate wake up here in our once-great state of California and toss the Democrats out of power in the state legislature.

Did you notice that just yesterday the California Democrats in the state legislature revived a $200B state universal health care bill? – never mind that the state is already almost bankrupt.

It’s as if they didn’t see what happened in Massachusetts this past Tuesday.

Utterly amazing.

Best,

Len
Len Penzo dot Com
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