It has taken me some time to write this today so by the time I hit reply some of the points may have been covered.
To me this all boils down to choice. I want to be able to choose the health care that my family and I receive.
To clear one thing up real quick, there is nothing in the constitution that even remotely mentions a right to health care, or an ability for the government to force me to buy health care. If anything the constitution would prevent the government from forcing me to buy healthcare.
I hate this debate and I hate our government, both Democrats and Republicans for creating the bullshit that we have today. If the government had never become involved in healthcare I would hypothesize that we'd all be better off today.
To start, the government created the current system during WWII. During WWII that fat piece of shit douche bag FDR enacted wage controls on the citizenry so he wouldn't have to pay the "retail" price for fighting the war. He didn't want to pay retail because he needed to enact other unconstitutional measures such as social security and large scale public works funded by the federal government. So he put wage controls in place. As a concession, he made health insurance funded by an employer tax deductible. If you wanted to by health insurance as an individual, well go fuck yourself, no tax deduction there.
That created this system where individuals are not responsible for their own health care. Instead, most of us are dependent on someone else for our health insurance. And since the employer pays most of that bill, we don't see the cost, or really care what those costs are, me included. This drives up cost. There is no elasticity to the demand curve because quantity demanded is almost totally disconnected from cost. Read a macroeconomics book if this doesn't make sense.
In addition to creating the third party system, the government also has bequeathed us with health care mandates. For instance, if you buy health care in Massachusetts your policy has to include mental health treatment, alcohol and substance abuse treatment, pregnancy/prenatal coverage, etc. In my situation, I know that I don't need alcohol and substance abuse treatment, but I have to pay for it anyway. Same thing with mental health treatment (I don't need it although I'm sure some of you will disagree). My wife and I are done having kids but I have to buy a policy with pregnancy/prenatal coverage. Why do I say I have to pay for it, because my company's policy is with a big national firm that has coverage in every state because we have people in almost every state. So this big national company has to meet the demands of every state mandate.
I'll tell you how to get costs in line very quickly and it wouldn't take a frigging miracle to get it passed.
1) Either eliminate the tax deduction for employer purchase coverage or give the same tax deduction to individuals. Two things would happen here, employers would increase wages and drop these massive policies that cover all their employees and these employees would begin shopping policies that met their needs. It's less of an administrative burden on the employer and it keeps people from buying a one size fits all policy. These policies wouldn't cover everything band aid at 100% so people would actually have to (gasp) start paying for their own health care (gasp again). As a consequence people won't go to the doctor every time they have a sniffle and according to the laws of economics (which have worked 100% of the time they haven't been dicked around with by the government) doctors will lower their prices.
2) Get rid of the mandates. Allow people to buy the coverage they need. How much do you think your car insurance policy would cost if it covered every oil change and car wash? Insurance companies are going to make a profit (gasp) and all of these services have a price.
3) Get rid of HIPA. This makes it a total pain in the ass for doctors to share information.
4) Enact some sort of meaningful tort reform. As an example, I have a really good family friend who is an OB/GYN. If someone sues him or his company, they can take his house and his car, not just those things that are owned by his corporation. Not the same for a lawyer with an LLC. Why does a doctor risk losing everything? Ask the government. Tort reform would reduce the cost of "defensive medicine."
Why don't we do these things and see what happens. There certainly isn't any harm in doing it.
As far as comparing our health care to that of other countries, most people throw out the life expectancy statistic. That isn't the only measure of health care. Look at the rate of staph infections in hospitals in the US vs. the UK and/or Canada, that will frighten you. Or look at the time it takes to get a radiological study after being ordered by a physician in the US vs. the UK and/or Canada. Look at the number of MRIs per million people between the two countries. These are much more telling statistics.
Whether you choose to accept it or not, government created this problem. Government and/or whatever central planning they're trying to sell us is not and never will be able to solve it.
And while I'm at it, that 45 million Americans are uninsured line is total bullshit. At least 20 million of those are illegal immigrants. Another 10 million choose not to have health insurance, and 2 to 3 million of those are between jobs/temporarily unemployed. That leaves 12 million without health insurance. And the wonderful, all knowing, imperial federal government is going to "fix" that at the low, low cost of at least $1 trillion dollars over the next 10 years.
I would also like to point out Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security as wonderful examples of government programs. Now what in the world makes anyone think that they will run healthcare for 300 million people any better?
Lastly, our Constitution, what is left of it after our politicians wipe their asses with it, guarantees everyone a right to life, liberty, and property. Healthcare is not a right. For us to receive healthcare, someone else has to give up something whether it is their time (in the case of a nurse or a doctor) or a drug (in the case of a pharmaceutical company). No part of our Constitution gives anyone a right at the expense of someone else's.
