While all of the public attention has been on Social Security since the election, it seems that the Bush Administration is quietly planning to
overhaul the health care system. Are we being ambushed?
Emboldened by their success at the polls, the Bush administration and Republican leaders in Congress believe they have a new opportunity to move the nation away from the system of employer-provided health insurance that has covered most working Americans for the last half-century.
In its place, they want to erect a system in which workers -- instead of looking to employers for health insurance -- would take personal responsibility for protecting themselves and their families: They would buy high-deductible "catastrophic" insurance policies to cover major medical needs, then pay routine costs with money set aside in tax-sheltered health savings accounts.
The first step to this was the creation of HSAs. They were added to the Medicare prescription drug bill in 2003. Bush has also been throwing out the idea of eliminating the deduction for businesses that offer health care to employees.
The health care system in this country is in shambles, but putting the onus on the employee to take care of their own health insurance is not going to fix the problem. There is already a problem in this country with people shunning needed medical attention because they can't afford the deductible or to pay their percentage of the bill. With the plan that Republicans are talking about this would only get worse because the individual would have to pay for that out their own "savings account".
What the Republicans seem to be missing here is that there are two major problems with health care. 1) It has become too expensive. 2) Not enough people are covered. We need to find a way to lower costs and insure more people. A plan like this one won't do either. It will only shift the burden to the individual, in an attempt to benefit business.
I shouldn't be surprised by this though. Most Republicans that I've gotten to know seem to only look out for themselves. They believe that if you can't afford a place to live or insurance it's your own fault. They don't believe in social programs that could better the community as a whole. This proposal doesn't deviate from that idea.
-mtfriend
www.pacdaily.com
The Pacific Daily