A Rant About Reform

Health care reform. The beginning of the end of the private health insurance industry. It's inevitable. Here's what will happen; it's already happened to a lesser extent in my state, where health insurance premiums are much higher than in other states, with only a couple of carriers able to survive in the market.

The government will mandate that have to provide guaranteed coverage, regardless of pre-existing conditions. They have to insure you, even if you're already sick. Then, they'll disallow caps on payouts. Those two things alone will kill the industry. The companies will be forced to increase their prices to cover all the sick people with unlimited benefits. The young, healthy people still won't sign up, because the IRS-enforced "penalty" will cost them less than the insurance, and they know if they do come down with some horrible disease, they can't be turned down. So, there won't be a large enough risk pool to spread the risk sufficiently. (For you Obama Zombies, that means there will be more sick people with coverage than healthy people.) Because the health insurance companies have to make money to survive, they'll raise their rates - they'll have no choice.

Then, Obama and his cronies gnash their teeth and cry "See? SEE?? We've done everything we can, but these companies are still driven by greed! We need a public option, or you and your loved ones will be dying in the streets! When Dick Cheney shoots you in the face, where will you go???" So they'll create a wonderful government health care plan that will provide unlimited coverage for 1/3 of the cost of private health care plan. Since the government doesn't need to be profitable, they only need to reach into your pocket and mine to steal more money, this will work for them. For a while.

Within a couple of years, EVERYONE will move to the plan, some by choice, and some involuntarily because their employers move them. Thousands of health insurance company employees will lose their jobs. Once the last private health insurance company folds, your only choice will be the government plan. (Or the private medicine black market.) Where will you go if you're dissatisfied with your care? When they control your health care, they control you. Period.

But guess what... within minutes of the death of private insurance, someone, somewhere deep within the bowels of the government will point out that we're spending roughly 463 times as much as we're taking in in premiums. That's when rationing comes in. "A hip replacement, Ethel? At 86? Hmmm... no, here, take this pill." No, it's not a death panel, it's something far more heartless - a budget committee.

"But," some fat, Democratic Congressblob channeling Ted Kennedy's ghost will say, "there's a way to fix it! We can bring in more money by adding more healthy people to the system. If only there were... wait, wait... why, look... here are all of these poor, unfortunate undocumented workers who are living in the shadows. Why, we could boost our health care revenues by billions by bringing these harmless, law-abiding citizens into the ranks of citizenry."

It's ironic. Countless "Americans" spend all of their time and energy trying to get someone else to pay for their next physical, while in the next room the U.S. Constitution is on life support, and about to breathe its last. We deserve what's coming.