The health care question no one answers
Jun 27, 2017, 5:44 AM | Updated: 5:44 am
This whole health care debate gets bogged down over CBO scores, tax breaks, and deficits, which are all very important.
But the fundamental question that never gets asked is: Who should be told “no?”
Because in a private health care system based on private health insurance, some people have access, and some people don’t. Otherwise, it would be public health care.
A private system presumes that, from time to time, a patient will go to a doctor and be told that he or she needs treatment, only to be told by the insurance company for whatever reason, “I’m sorry, but we will never pay for that treatment.”
So my question is who should that happen to? I’m guessing every one of you will say, “Well, it definitely should not happen to me.” But I’m guessing a lot of you will also say that it shouldn’t happen to anyone.
Even critics who detest Obamacare keep saying they want to protect the most vulnerable. If you know of anybody who’s stood up in Congress and said, “I refuse to vote for any bill that protects the most vulnerable,” please let me know and I will gladly stand corrected. But everybody seems to want to protect the vulnerable whether they can pay or not.
If I’m right about that, then there’s only one thing we should be debating if we want to keep a private health care system. That is, the unaffordable prices it charges!
–Doctors who can’t tell you what your surgery will cost.
–The cheap drugs that suddenly cost 50 times what they did yesterday.
–The unused supplies tossed into the trash.
–Tackle that part and maybe this wouldn’t be such a heavy lift.