Marie Cocco on insurers' definition of reform
Health care reform with no reform
By Marie Cocco
denverpost.com
April 25, 2009
Maintaining what amounts to a monopoly on insurance for the working-age population has become a central goal of the insurance industry, which rightly fears that the government will provide more comprehensive coverage at a lower cost. This is, of course, the whole point of overhauling the insurance system. But never mind.
The industry worries that Americans will find out not only that government-supported health insurance isn’t a socialist catastrophe (see, for example, Medicare) but a fairer, lower cost and more efficient system than the expensive, inefficient - and failing - market-based system we have now.
Insurers have gone so far as to offer to stop charging people with existing medical conditions more for coverage, if only Congress and the Obama administration would continue to go along with a system more like the one we have now than the one that we actually need.
In essence, this is what the proponents of such a system want: a new and “reformed” health insurance system that works essentially like ours does today.
But the very reason we are again going down the politically treacherous path of attempting reform is that the system we have doesn’t work, not by any standard.
So far we have “reformed” the health insurance system by reinforcing precisely what’s wrong with it. To do this again would yield precisely the same result.
It wouldn’t be a reformed system. It would be just another way for the insurance industry to game the one we already have.
http://www.denverpost.com/opinionheadlines/ci_12220918
Comment:
By Don McCanne, MD
Everyone is in agreement that health care financing must be reformed. Most believe that the goal of reform should be to provide everyone with all necessary health care under a payment system that will prevent financial hardship for each one of us.
For the insurance industry, reform means expanding their successful business model to include more individuals in their plans while shifting the higher costs to the government (taxpayers). Most people do not want to be required to purchase health plans at premiums they cannot afford, and then be stuck with inadequate coverage designed to keep premiums from climbing even higher. Yet, as Marie Cocco makes clear, the insurance industry’s version of reform would reinforce precisely what is wrong with our health care financing.
So members of Congress continue to insist that a public insurance program that would achieve our goals is off the table, while they meet behind closed doors with representatives of the insurance industry, crafting reform that will cost much more but leave far too many of us without the protection we need.
Is complacency our problem?
complacency: “A feeling of contentment or self-satisfaction, especially when coupled with an unawareness of danger, trouble, or controversy.” (American Heritage Dictionary)