I recently read that the government orchestrated "Connector" in Massachusetts (where a lot of Massachusetts residents must buy health insurance, because they are unemployed or self employed or don't get health insurance through their jobs) doesn't sell a lot of the kinds of insurance that cover enough of sick people's bills to actually insure that they aren't bankrupted.
No, nearly half of the plans that the Connector sells are the cheapest that are legally available, and that is causing huge problems because the same people who have no choice but to buy those plans, are the people who actually do need the better plans.
Now, what is wrong with that system? A lot. Because its limited by its very optionalness to being both unaffordable, and intentionally inadequate for the sick, because the cost of helping the sick is higher than the cost of helping the healthy. Basically, it comes down to the fact that IF, we want to do an acceptable job of taking care of both sick and healthy people, we have to move away from the system we have, towards a system that isn't based primarily on profit. ITS THE ONLY WAY.
Also, the cost of health insurance, WHICH ANY "INSURANCE-CENTRIC" SYSTEM MUST NOT BEAT... Is rising at 3-4 times the rate of inflation and much much faster than wages. Also, many people have lost or are lsing jobs and any system that is based on insurance must dump them if they miss a payment, and impose a waiting period and/or a fine, in order to keep people paying. For example, COBRA is unsubsidized healthcare, and COBRA dumps people if they are late as little as one day with their checks.
There is no allowance for the costs of being sick.
The costs and challenges of moving to affordable health care for all are big, but they are manageable, as shown by so many other countries. For example Taiwan moved to a healthcare system that is a top performer, from a crisis in which 45% of their people were uninsured. They did it in under a year.
The real reason the Democrat want to take four years is to make the costs of six years of their no-cost-control public interest optional bill look lie its spread over ten years. But during that time, 101,000 people will die of preventable causes because of their fiscal trick. That's why I think that Obama putting off the real challenge of reform, finding a way to make healthcare affordable for the millions who dont have large group plans and generous employers, and dumping that responsibility on the next President, who is obviously not going to not be a Democrat, is a huge cop-out, one that will go down in the history books as one of the worst political blunders by a sitting President, ever.
Well, then what can we do to solve this problem before the next election? I suggest we look to the Taiwanese and their success, which was actually coordinated by an American, as something we could easily replicate here. That way Obama would be looked at as a great, if late blooming, President, and not as a flop.
Also see Frontline: Sick Around The World (yes, MRI scans really DO cost only $98 in Japan!)
If you ever become chronically ill, the US is the worst place in the developed world to be right now. Its because of our unwillingness to say no to the healthcare industry monster.
Lets get away from the kind of mentality that lazily blames sick people for being sick and tries to demonize those who try to get better, instead of trying harder to find out what's really wrong with them.
Lets fix the system that we have created.