The time for change is now

By Jim Fitzgerald
Columnist

I have said it before and I will say it again. Insurance companies push as much risk onto the government (you and me) as they can and then do not want the government to compete with them for the less risky population.  For example, do you have a disability policy? If you do, look closely at the language of your contract. Most likely, you will see a clause that requires you to apply for Social Security Disability should you file a claim against the policy. The disability carrier will provide a lawyer to shepherd your case through the SSD process. Then, whatever benefits you receive from SSD reduces any benefits from your disability insurer. If SSD awards you $1,000 a month, then your insurer reduces their benefit to you by $1,000. You may be paying for a $2,000 a month disability policy but your insurer will only be paying $1,000 a month should $1,000 of SSD be awarded.
Just consider the “public option” that has been vilified so harshly by the conservatives.  They claim they do not want government in health care. Moreover, they do not want government to compete with private insurers. Do they realize that government has been involved in health care for decades? Who do they think manage the Medicare and Medicaid health insurance programs? Both programs were created to cover individuals that private insurance programs do not want on their books. The government covers the elderly, the poor, and the disabled (both mental and physical).
Private insurance companies do not want to cover these populations because they are heavy consumers of health care. That means the unhealthiest among us are forced into government programs and then conservatives complain that the government cannot run efficient health care programs.  This criticism is similar to tying one hand behind a fighter and then blaming him for losing the fight. What do you think would happen if a private insurer were forced to accept only the unhealthiest among us? What if they were prohibited from accepting healthier people to help offset the expenses associated with the unhealthy ones? That company would go bankrupt, plain and simple. However, that does not stop conservatives from suggesting the government should turn a profit on the very population that private insurers refuse to insure.
The government cannot charge the kind of premiums that a private insurer is able to charge. Anyone with private health insurance knows, with certainty, his or her premiums will go up every year, sometimes twice a year. Anyone on Medicare knows the $96 monthly premium is nowhere close to what a private insurer would charge. I was paying $500 a month for a $10,000 deductible policy before I turned 65. I was so thankful to get Medicare. It was a lifesaver because if I had to pay private rates, I would not have been able to afford to retirement. Private insurers have a free hand in raising rates while the government is limited because of the population it is forced to cover.
Conservatives also believe that if the government competed in the private sector, private health insurers would go bankrupt. On the one hand, they say the government cannot run an efficient program and, on the other hand, say that the government would be so efficient that private companies would be driven out of business! Which is it? For decades, private insurers have been allowed to “cherry-pick” who they were willing to insure while the government has been forced to accept only the people private companies would not accept. Do you think this is fair to the American taxpayer? I do not and believe that the government should have the chance to enroll healthier people so that premiums, across the board, can drop. We can increase the health care insurance market by over 45 million people and the government should get the chance to enroll as many of them as possible. If given a fair and level playing field, it is my bet government would be every bit as efficient in providing health care insurance as private insurers. Essentially, it is very unfair to allow private insurers to “stick” the American taxpayer with everybody they refuse to insure.
We cry about unaffordable premiums, we cry about the need, both public and private, to ration health care (it happens every day), and, then, we cry about changing the system to make it more responsive and affordable. When will we wake up and realize that changing a system that has become increasingly unaffordable means unpleasant choices? Let us usher in a public-private partnership, like Medicare, for everyone and be done with it. The time for change is here. The time for change is now. Conservatives have failed to introduce any substantive ideas for change and failed to come to the table. Change must occur without them. They squandered their opportunity to be an integral part of the overhaul of health care. They should stop whining.