Too Complicated to Understand?

Trying to follow the health care reform debate gets more complicated by the day. Those who favor a universal health care plan for the United States are faced with confusing proposals. Those who favor a government option as a way of assuring coverage for everyone, while preserving the choices of the many private plans now available, rightly fear that the government option will be shot down by the insurance industry. The president has said repeatedly that he will only support a plan that preserves the private choices people have now, and that the government plan would be in addition. It's evident that the Right are promoting anything that will confuse and defeat any reform.

Now we see the foolishness of the so-called 'death panels' threats which supposedly would have the power to withhold care for the ill who face end-of-life issues. This of course has never been proposed and is only a ploy being used to muddy the waters. Living wills, advance directives and end of life discussions are valuable tools for intelligent planning, but should be talked about apart from the issue of insurance coverage for all.

I have felt all along that the Obama plan should have been proposed as simply as possible, something like 'Universal Medicare,' which would be expanding the current Medicare program to include all ages of the population. Medicare now for those 65 and over has included many private options - the supplementary insurance coverage which can be purchased in addition to the government program. There are now a wide variety of private plans offered by insurance companies, some through employers and pension plans, but many which can be purchased individually according to the choice of the customer. The government could come up with a government sponsored supplement to Medicare to compete with the private supplimentary plans now offered. Such a government offered supplement could foster competition and lower the cost of the other plans.

All sides agree that a careful cleansing of waste in the current system must be effected in order for any reform to be affordable. I would favor in addition some kind of law to forbid Congress from raiding Social Security and Medicare funds for other programs which has been done for years.

For any proposal to have a chance to succeed, it must be clear and understandable in order to be free from deliberate attempts to confuse what we all know is needed, a workable system of health care for everyone. I think the place to begin is Medicare for all ages.