Health Care Reform

I know the issue of Health Care Reform is huge,
and I also know that I have not spent a significant
amount of time researching all the ins and outs of
things. But I have been listening and talking and
thinking a bit, and I wish to do so further.

From the little bit that I have gathered, it seems
to me that people who know economics, know that the
public option thing that Obama is proposing is not
a good solution to our problem. I listened to a
series on this topic on the "This American Life"
podcast with experts that said as much. It went
into the history of our current health care system,
how we started with not very good medical treatment
way back in the day, but it was very affordable.
Then, care started to improve, doctors and hospitals
became more than just places where people went to
die and they became competitive.

Care improved and costs started rising. And then
there was a huge increase in jobs and a shortage of
workers to work them, so employers started offering
health care packages to compete for workers. I know
I'm missing a ton here, but it talked about how this
whole employer-based system is not a good one. Why
should we get our health care from our employers?
It doesn't make a lot of sense. We don't ask our
employers to pay our grocery bill, but expecting
them to pay for our health care has become commonplace.

And the insurance industry started out as a basically
good idea, but it has resulted in people not even
having an idea about how much their treatment is costing
and incurring huge expenses that the insurance companies
end up paying, resulting in higher and higher premiums,
and this is a problem!

We clearly have to do something to fix it. People have
tried things in the past, but further action is needed.
But from what I have gathered (which I confess isn't a
huge amount... just bits and pieces), the proposed solution
from our President is not really trying to solve our
current problem as much as it is trying to totally restructure
who is in control of the whole thing, that is, the government.
But is that really what we need? Isn't it true that we have
one of the best, most innovative health care in the world?
Isn't there a better way? I know I've heard that there are
better ways that people who understand the issues are
coming up with. I hope these people get heard before it's
too late.

I wish I knew more about what is going on, and I wish we all
did. I wish we could refine our system and not totally
re-work the whole thing. Isn't that worth trying to do?
Is offering health care to everyone and having the government
control it really going to motivate doctors and hospitals to
be innovative like they have been in the past? Are we really
ready as Americans to hand over this huge sector of our economy
to the government? Are we ready to become less like America
and more like the rest of the world? I think that the way
that we have historically done things and run things, though
it hasn't been and isn't and will never be perfect (though it
can be improved), is a good way to do things. We work hard,
we reward the producers, the ones who come up with the best
products, and we shop around for quality. We don't rely on
someone else to take care of us and give up our right to
make our own decisions about our care.

I know I'm in over my head in entering into this discussion,
but I honestly would like to hear what others have to say
about this as well. I want to understand it better. I want
all of us to, before it's too late and we're going in a
direction that will not be beneficial for our nation.

What do you think? You most likely know more about this than
me, reader, so if you want to leave me a comment or a link
or whatever, it would be appreciated. I just want to be
dialoguing about this more then I have been. I want all of
us to be - not just watching the news, but talking about it,
thinking about it, and hopefully steering it in some way.