According to a recent news article, the cost of Obama’s health care plan, which hopes to bring health care to all Americans, is something on the order of $1.5 trillion over ten years.  And while that may seem like an exorbitant amount, remember that our six years in Iraq has already cost us more than $600 billion.  And the war has killed 4200 Americans, wounded 30,000, and has killed at least 180,000 Iraqis, and some estimates put that number much, much higher.  Let’s also not forget that we just spent $1.5 trillion bailing out the banks. ($700 billion for TARP, and another $787 billion stimulus).

As someone who has lived for many years without health insurance, not because I chose to but because as an entrepreneur I simply could not afford the high premiums the insurance companies demanded, I know what it’s like living in fear that one day I might get seriously ill, that I might have to go to the emergency room and fall very quickly into major debt.  Routine screenings for serious illnesses are not possible for people without health insurance.  We just can’t afford them.  And so we play Russian roulette with our health, looking three times before crossing the street, in the hopes that we don’t get run over, that we don’t suddenly fall ill.  No wonder why the sales of natural foods have increased.

I have a family member who is a doctor, and at times he suggested to me that if everyone paid into the system, insurance premiums would be much lower for all.  He also said that he has full-time staff in his office whose sole purpose is to call insurance companies and get approval for medical procedures.  (The insurance companies make it difficult to get approval to minimize the number of procedures they have to pay for).  Well it seems to me that the doctors are not the problem.  They are simply doing what is asked of them: treating the patient.  I say we drop the whole insurance thing completely and set up a system which pays the doctors directly.  Think about it:  Do you really want to reward a company like Blue Cross/Blue Shield whose stated goal is to find ways to deny your claim?  (It’s happened to me; an MRI was “approved” and subsequently denied on a technicality — as if I’m a sports player; I jumped an instant before the quarterback said “hike” — and so I ended up owing $1000 for sitting inside a machine for 30 minutes.)  Do you want to reward a company whose goal is to maximize profit and not health?  I say let’s pay the doctors ourselves via some pay-into health fund that every American will have taken from their paycheck, like social security, or unemployment insurance.  It’s time to fix the system, and like the software I sometimes write for a living, I think we should follow the model KISS: keep it simple stupid.  Someone does a service for me, I pay them directly.  Not some middle man crook skimming money from all in the supposed business of “health.”