Health Care

Words don't do justice when attempting to convey how much I dislike this health care reform debate.

1. I'm not sure if you noticed, but it's not really much of a debate.
2. This is exactly the wrong time to try to get this done (economically), especially since there are tax increases involved.
3. Every plan that I've seen has at least a wrinkle that will materially change the current coverage of Americans who like their health insurance the way it is.

All that being said, I believe that all citizens should have access to affordable coverage.

Bloomberg combed to globe this week for studies (none totally impartial I'm sure) attempting to measure whether the current U.S. systems is any good. Since I've been bitching about health care reform, I wanted to put it out there that there's a lot of bad in what we currently have. Of note:

"While delays do occur [in Canada] for non-emergency procedures, data indicate that Canada’s system of universal health coverage provides care as good as in the U.S., at a cost 47 percent less for each person...

Deaths considered preventable through health care are less frequent in Canada than in the U.S.,

Private-insurance administrative costs in the U.S. are 12.7 cents of a dollar, and as high as 18 cents for some companies, said Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth Fund. Government plans, including Medicare and Medicaid, spend 5.8 cents excluding costs of private drug plans, she said. In Canada 4.2 cents is spent on administration."

I still think this argument should be shelved for a while and not rushed through, especially in the awful iterations currently out there.