We Need Some Real Honesty on Health Care Reform

Just to prove that I can be "progressive" at times...

The whole Joe Wilson thing is a distraction. It will be a very good thing for everyone, including illegals, to have insurance coverage. We already pay a lot for uninsured at emergency rooms. And presumably they will stay healthier, increasing their quality of life and perhaps decreasing expenses. Frankly, if a few illegals slip through the cracks and gain some government credits and benefits, not a biggie in the grand picture, since most illegals will be paying for their insurance. That's good for us.

President Obama stated, truthfully, said "Nothing in our plan requires you to change what you have". This skirts the underlying issue. One of the good arguments in favor of health care reform is that current practices place a large burden on businesses, hurting their competitiveness. For this argument to make any sense, that means that after the reforms, some businesses will stop their current insurance support, to make themselves more competitive. Their employees will then change to the Public Option. Is this horrible? Well, hopefully the Public Option is decent, and I have to believe that most doctors will sign up. But, even if this causes minor hardship, overall, it is good for the country. But allowing a struggling small family-run business to remain competitive, to resist losing out to a Borders or a Starbucks or, even worse, to outsource their labor overseas, that is a very good thing. If this requires a few employees to change plans or Doctors, so be it. It's good for us.

All sides complain about "rationing", or pander to Americans that there will be no rationing. Rationing is required. Call it cost-benefit analysis, call it sabremetrics, call it common sense, but it's required. In a perfect world, we'd have infinite money, and no need for rationing. In that perfect world I'd own both an Audi R8 and a Porsche Cayman S and check out whether Motor Trend ranked them correctly as the top two "driver's cars". We are not in that perfect world.

Finally, I'd like to cite a New York Times editorial with which I agreed. Will probably come back to comment on it later.