I have to chime in on Healthcare

I've decided to chime in on the healthcare debate because I know that everyone is anxiously awaiting my uneducated opinion. Yes, I really don't know what I'm talking about here, but that doesn't stop me from having an opinion (just like most of you).

Healthcare is a tough one because no matter how you do it or how much money you throw at it, in the end, everyone dies - and nobody wants to die. The ideal situation, where everyone gets the latest treatments with the best doctors for free is just not possible. This makes healthcare choices not so much about right and wrong as about bad and a little bit better than bad. That is a tough sell, because 'a little bit better than bad' can still be picked apart and criticized even though it is better than the alternatives.

So here are my thoughts:

• People need healthcare insurance. I mean everybody. If you don't have it, you are just trusting that if something really bad happens to you, everybody else will chip in and pay for it. That's not a good system.
• It's ridiculous that if you are not on a group plan and you have health problems, you are out of luck. It will be this way as long as the system is based on the profit of insurance companies. These companies have no incentive to do anything different. Competition is fine and good, but it won't fix the fundamental problem that insurance companies don't want to compete for the people who are already sick!
• Another problem in my mind is that we don't have any price competition with the medical care itself. When was the last time you chose anything medically related based on price. We generally don't even think about it.
• Everyone that is afraid of government involvement (and rightfully so) needs to realize that the government is already involved. It's called Medicare. Don't you think that all the private insurance companies are basing what they cover on what Medicare covers? So right now, you have de facto control by the government over your health care, like it or not.

I don't see any way around the government being greatly involved as much as it pains me to say it. It is what a great majority of the rest of the world does including many places that have better healthcare (overall) than us.

I think the plan needs to be universal (required for everyone). A person can opt out only if they have other health insurance.

We need a plan where people have to pay a percentage of the bill so that we, the consumers, put price pressure on the system and make wise choices on how often we visit the doctor, what tests we have run, etc.. I don't trust insurance companies to do it well, and I don't trust the government to do it well either. (I'm still upset about a tv show I saw many months ago where wealthy elderly people were going to the doctor weekly at government expense just because they needed someone to talk to. If they got two visits a year, and then had to pay 50% after that, I don't think they would do it as much. )

I kind of like the idea that the percentage you pay is based on income. (The richer you are, the higher percentage of the total cost of services you pay). This view treats healthcare more as a fundamental right, than a privilege or reward for working hard. I think I agree with that view.

One final thing ... I have no idea how we should pay for it!