Enemy of the Good

OK, at first I supported health care reform. Then I said, scrap the bill and start over. I don't like some of the things that are in the bill. I don't like the fact that important stuff has been left out of it. I think the President handled the campaign badly. The method by which this thing is being pushed through Congress stinks. But are we ever going to deal with this issue, if not now?

I just think back to last year when my wife and I were trying to get individual insurance. We were turned down by the same company through which I'd been insured by my former employer because of a non-life-threatening physical condition. Lucky for us -- it's the same company that now wants to raise rates 39 percent. We did find somewhat affordable insurance with another company. But during the process, as we were questioned about our medical backgrounds, we were made to feel like we were trying to cover up a criminal past. Sure, there's freedom of choice: the insurance companies get to choose those who then have the privilege of paying their premiums. As I've said before, if you don't see something wrong with that picture, your eyesight's a lot worse than mine.

The basic business model of insurance seems to be founded on the avoidance of paying claims. If I'm wrong about this, please tell me how.

It upsets me that this bill doesn't effectively deal with tort reform. Because of it, individual doctors and hospital corporations are forced to load up on -- uh, insurance to protect themselves -- and who pays the premiums?

Now it may seem like a counter-intuitive argument, but the law requires you to carry at least minimal auto insurance coverage if you plan to operate a motor vehicle on a public street or highway, so what's wrong with requiring everyone to have health insurance? You may be 27 years old and think you're immortal -- but suppose you're hurt or stricken with some expensive illness out of the blue. Who pays for your care, if you can't? Doesn't enlarging the risk pool minimize the pain for everyone in the end? Isn't that what insurance should really be about?

As for the screwed-up system by which this bill has moved through Congress, well, it follows one of my universal principles: if there's a system available to you to get what you want, you're almost certainly going to use it -- regardless of whether someone else without access to that system thinks it's fair. But don't feel badly for them: they have access to another system unavailable to you, and they'll be working it.

So if the Democrats successfully work the system on this issue, chalk one up for them. If not, can we count on the Republicans to address health care, or health insurance reform, and are we as voters going to keep congressional feet to the fire on this? I should live so long.

Wrestling With the Angel

From all appearances, this health care debate is a giant boondoggle. The bills to reform it are thousands of pages long and nobody really knows what’s in them. Lobbyists are swarming over Congress. Fist fights break out at town hall meetings, where “ordinary people” are outnumbered by members of interest groups. And of course, it’s the wrong time to be thinking about this, many say, in the middle of a deep recession when so many have no jobs.

But is it the wrong time? I submit that if everything in the economy was going swimmingly, there would be less interest in reform, not more. When things are good, who’s interested in changing anything? Success is something you don’t generally feel like messing with.

As for the town halls, fist fights at least show that citizens are involved in this debate. The difference between a member of a political interest group and an “ordinary” participant is as thin as the color of the T-shirts being worn. And can you think of a time in recent memory when there were town halls around the country about a particular issue? Wouldn’t it be nice if we’d had them in advance of, say, our invading Iraq?

This debate is forcing the populace to pay a lot more attention to the influence of lobbyists in Congress, and is prompting individuals to mobilize -- and no lobbyist can outweigh the influence of an engaged electorate.

If you’ll pardon me for going biblical on you, there’s the well-known story of Jacob wrestling with the angel. The match went on all night, and the angel tried everything to escape Jacob’s grasp, including knocking his hip out of joint, but old Jake would not let go until he got his blessing. I believe that’s the attitude we need to solve the health care problem. We have to resist the pressure to meet some artificial deadline or just let go completely. If we wait for a time when things are better, well, they’re just never going to be good enough, so let’s finish what we’ve started.