Need for healthcare reform being lost in all the noise, haste

Dear Editor:

In all the noise on healthcare reform, we are losing focus that our healthcare system, while not broken, is in need of repair.

Costs are escalating far beyond the rate of inflation, millions cannot afford even basic coverage, and many more cannot purchase insurance because of preexisting medical conditions.

Our friends and family members are impacted. In fact, this debate is personal to me. In 2004, I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Shortly after my diagnosis I lost my job, and the next job I took did not offer health benefits. I attempted to purchase a plan from numerous companies, but when I told them I had MS, it was a race to see which company could hang up on me the fastest.

The Obama Administration and Congress are right to place healthcare reform at the top of their agendas. However, in their haste they are seriously considering proposals that would further limit access to healthcare. Among these proposals is the so-called “public option,” a government-run health plan that many believe will compete with employer-sponsored health plans and drive down costs.

I could take advantage of a “public option” plan if one is put into place, but I do not support government-run healthcare.

Supporters of the “public option” believe it is the solution to all problems. What they do not tell us is that the “public option” will likely lead to total government control of the healthcare system. The history of entitlement programs shows how governments have the power to set prices artificially low and to hide escalating costs in ballooning deficits. Private insurance, including health plans provided by employers, won’t be able to compete and would likely disappear. As a result, over 160 million Americans presently covered by private plans will become dependent on the government for healthcare.

America should not go down that road. Other countries with government-run plans place price tags on the lives of their citizens. They make ill patients wait for critical care, and cutting edge treatments disappear, leaving millions without access to life-saving treatments.

Additionally, rather than controlling costs, increased wait times and limited access to treatment will swamp emergency rooms, far and away the most expensive setting for healthcare.

Our own experience with Medicare and Medicaid should serve as an example. Government artificially sets the price paid to health care providers under these plans and the provider then passes along the actual cost of treatment of Medicare and Medicaid patients on to Americans with private insurance.

The “public option” will have the exact same consequences.

The costs of such a plan are conservatively estimated to be $1 trillion at the outset, to be paid for with a variety of tax increases.

We cannot afford to take $1 trillion out of the economy even in the best of economic times. History is replete with government programs that have expanded far beyond their original intent.

As one of the millions the Obama administration and Congress seek to help, I urge common sense. Most Americans (a recent CNN poll said 80 percent) are happy with the healthcare system.

Rather than tear down a system that works for most, make market-based reforms based on the strengths of the current system. There is no reason to reinvent the wheel or establish a government-run healthcare system that history proves is doomed to failure.

Kurt Hellmann,

Madisonville, La.