Government Cheese - Government Healthcare

“Don’t get sick after June” This is the operative phrase for Native Americans that currently receive “Obama care” through Indian Health Services. Yes, Native Americans have socialized medicine right now. Why June? The program runs out of funding by June and the ability to serve patients after that point are severely limited. Heavy rationing of services, tests, access to medical diagnostics etc. is a common malady of the HIS, but it ramps up severely on most reservations after June.
Well at least we have the dynamic model of the NIH - National Institute of Health in the UK to rely on as a model of how a public option will really work – right? Yes we do. If you need knee replacement surgery, you have an average wait time of 12 months. For cataract surgery, 8 months and hip replacement 14 months. Why? Hard core rationing of any expensive care by the NIH is the only way to keep the system afloat. The fact that UK tax rates are almost twice what ours are, and the NIH is the single largest item in the UK’s budget still produces a Healthcare system that is horribly inefficient and seems to hope that people die before they need any expensive care.
I am like most of you. I get my healthcare through my work. I pay half of the monthly premium myself, and have to wrestle with the insurance company all the time to get them to pay the bills. I do not like that aspect of the current system either. That being said, the current health system is not a free market system at all. As a consumer of a healthcare product - I don’t know or care what the cost of my doctor visit is, what emergency room care costs or what any recommended actions the primary care physician prescribes costs at all. No other service or product we consume is so free from price scrutiny by the consumer.
Our problem is getting the care done quickly, by the best Doctors, and keeping our out of pocket cost to a minimum. The Medical providers care about the costs as they have to get the insurance company to reimburse them at a rate where they can make a profit and cover the costs of their business.
In reality though, the Insurance companies are the main force preventing huge cost increases. While we all seem to revile Insurance companies, they are the only reason the whole thing has not collapsed or turned into a program for just the very rich.
Enter the wisdom of President Obama when he said the following at the Portsmouth town hall meeting, on how private insurance companies can compete with the government:
“If the private insurance companies are providing a good bargain, and if the public option has to be self-sustaining -- meaning taxpayers aren’t subsidizing it, but it has to run on charging premiums and providing good services and a good network of doctors, just like any other private insurer would do -- then I think private insurers should be able to compete.”
What ? All Government programs are not self-sustaining by definition. They’re subsidized by the taxpayer. If they were self-financed, we’d be free of the IRS and the tax code. The only reason for any government service is to provide financial support for an operation that is otherwise unsustainable, or else there would be no point in the government’s involvement at all.

The “Public Option” proposed by the Democrats, that purports to fairly compete with the private sector does not have to make a profit as Insurance companies do. It will only be a matter of time until they drive the Insurance companies out of business leaving only one payer – the Federal Government. When private companies do this to each other they call in the Anti Trust lawyers, as “price dumping” destroys competition unfairly.
Then he said the following, once the teleprompter stopped working: “UPS and FedEx are doing just fine. It’s the Post Office that’s always having problems.” Problems at the Post Office?
The only way the post office can stay in business is its government subsidy. The USPS lost $2.4 billion in the quarter ended in June and projects a net loss of $7 billion in fiscal 2009.
Ahh, the soothing tones of our President who speaks so well. Just focus on the vision of long lines and interminable waits.
What he did conjure up is the clear vision of a system that has one goal, an equal share of misery. He has failed repeatedly to explain how the government will provide more health care for less money. He has failed to explain why increased demand for medical services without an increase in supply won’t lead to rationing by government bureaucrats. And he has failed to explain why a Medicare-like model is desirable when Medicare itself is going broke.