I'm not sure I completelyunderstand the health care debate. But I'm going to take a shot and put down mythoughts and would love additional education, feedback and thoughts as well.
Let's start with thenumbers. I keep hearing in the newsthat there is something like 40 some million[1]Americans without health insurance. From what I gather these people don't havehealth care for three main reasons:
1. It's too expensive and they can't afford it
2. They are unemployed and do not have access toemployer sponsored plans
3. They are denied coverage due to expensive preexistingconditions
What the debate is NOTabout. From what I can tell, we'vesomehow reached a point in our country's history where most people are nowsaying that it is not right for a country of our wealth to have so many peopleuninsured. Therefore, some change is necessary.
What the debate IS about.So if we all agree that we need somesort of reform, then what the debate seems to get stuck on is whether theprivate market can move towards insuring all of us, or if we need thegovernment to step in and provide some sort of tax/market incentive to helpthem, or a public run option to compete with the private market. Secondly, itseems like the debate moves out of simply being about health care and movestowards a debate on what is the role of the federal government in the firstplace. The biggest fear I hear isthat by even simply entertaining a public option for health insurance, we areessentially moving away from being a democracy and are somehow moving closer tobecoming a socialist state.
And this second debate iswhere I begin to really struggle. For those people who argue that a public planis tantamount to socialism, I am left to wonder about all the other areas ofAmerica that our government is already heavily involved, either currently or inour recent past.
