Vote for Mitt's Healthcare Policy. Please?

Warning: the following will not an entertaining blog. Sorry. Gotta speak my mind every once in a while.

I am disturbed by the notion of national health care for a number of reasons.

1. I am selfish and don't want to increase my premium drastically in order to compensate for others' failing health or age. [Talk to me after I've contracted cancer or some other really expensive disease, and I'm sure my opinion will change. I'm not pretending to take the moral high ground here.]

2. I don't believe that nationalizing health care without a solid plan to materially decrease costs will somehow result in a net benefit to anyone but the old and/or unhealthy, whose healthcare costs currently reflect their usage.

3. I lived with socialized healthcare in Taiwan--prescriptions are overprescribed, quality of healthcare is crap, and waiting times are unreasonable.

Recognizing the possibility that one of the current frontrunners in the Democratic race could take the White House soon, I checked out Obama's website for the first time--I vaguely remembered his platform on health insurance being less painful than Hillary's. A portion of his platform on health care follows:

"The Obama plan will create a National Health Insurance Exchange to help individuals who wish to purchase a private insurance plan. The Exchange will act as a watchdog group and help reform the private insurance market by creating rules and standards for participating insurance plans to ensure fairness and to make individual coverage more affordable and accessible. Insurers would have to issue every applicant a policy, and charge fair and stable premiums that will not depend upon health status."

Just because Obama uses buzz words and tries to appeal to our emotions by saying that we'll have similar plans to current government workers and senators doesn't mean that will actually happen. Insurance that is provided for everyone regardless of health status can be classified as "guaranteed issue" insurance, which will inevitably cause privately purchaed premiums to rise. Check out the average premiums in the 5 current guaranteed-issue states including New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Maine, and Vermont, versus individual coverage for the same demographic in other randomly-selected states including California, Utah, and Florida. The difference in monthly premiums is shocking and, to me, unacceptable.

My suggestion would be aligned with Mitt's approach:

Use A Free Market, Federalist Approach To Make Quality, Affordable Health Insurance Available To Every American

1. Deregulate State Markets. Encourage states to eliminate the cumbersome insurance regulations that drive costs up and providers out of the market. [I'm all for making this type of national change. It's called national market competition. I like it].

2. Fix The Tax Code. Level the playing field by making all health care expenses tax deductible, eliminating the special treatment afforded employer-provided health plans. [Why am I encouraged by the tax code to use my company's more expensive insurance instead of similar coverage with a cheaper premium that I can take with me even if I quit my job?]

3. Stop The Free-Riders. Use some of the money currently spent on providing expensive "free care" for the uninsured at emergency rooms to instead help the truly needy buy private insurance. [AMEN. Stop using the expensive ER as your primary care, people.]

4. Reform The Medical Liability System. Institute federal caps on non-economic and punitive damage awards to eliminate frivolous lawsuits and bring an end to the practice of defensive medicine. [Agreed, even though I might be out of a job. Medical malpractice rates are out of control, and let's be honest--lots of people aren't going after "fairness" or "just compensation" in these suits.]

5. Promote Innovation In Medicaid. Give states flexibility to spend their Medicaid dollars in whatever way they find most efficient and effective. [When was flexibility ever a bad thing?]

6. Bring Health Care Into The 21st Century. Improve quality and enhance transparency by introducing the same competitive forces that drive innovation in other sectors of the economy. [Shocking. Look at Lasik eye surgery--because it's not paid for by insurance, free market forces actually operate and drive the price down. Competition is good for the consumer.]

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: "My plan would allow people to purchase private insurance, not government insurance. No government-managed health care and no increase in taxes." (Tim Rohwer, "Romney Visits Bluffs," Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil, 3/23/07) [Aren't we all about the federal government staying out of our business and regulating the daily course of our lives?]

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: "But we say let's rely on personal responsibility. Help people buy their own private insurance. Get our citizens insured, not with a government takeover, not with new taxes needed, but instead with a free marketbased system that gets all of our citizens in the system. No more free rides." (ABC, Republican Presidential Debate, Des Moines, IA, 8/5/07) [Personal responsibility--a novel concept, instead of paying the government a bunch of money in taxes to take the responsibility for you.]

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: "Conservative principles have the answers for health care. I think I'm going to be able to demonstrate to you today the conservative principles of personal responsibility and free market dynamics and choice and personal care – these kinds of elements allow us to reform health care in such a way that we can solve the problems that America faces in health care without having a government takeover, without having socialized medicine with all its drawbacks and all its weaknesses." (Governor Mitt Romney, Remarks At The Florida Medical Association, 8/24/07) [Amen.]

Think about it. I'm sure there will be people who disagree with me--if I've been misguided, let me know. I'm open to legitimate arguments.