Vicious Rants of an Angry Yellow Man

While Obama and the Republicans square off on healthcare today, a process that will not change anything, an interesting news came up. The premier of Newfoundland is coming to the U.S. to get heart valve surgery. Immediately the people who are critics of government run insurance points to the fact that the premier does not want to get treated under his own government's health system. The truth is many rich foreigners come here to get medical treatment. We do have the best medical technology in the world. It is also true that Canada does not have anywhere the number of CT scans, MRIs and other technology that we have. They do have to wait for certain procedures. But they and most western countries have better infant mortality rates and life expectancy than we have. Those numbers are more important than the numbers of CT scans available. Rich folks, Americans or foreigners, will always want to get the most advanced treatments here. But that is not great news for the average American who can't get insurance because he got lay off or has a pre-existing condition.

The Canadian system is far from perfect. They don't allow private medical care. So if I have the money and want to cut in line, I can't. While that sounds fair, it slows down everyone else also. If the people who can afford to pay for a CT scan but can't or won't go to the U.S., then the line for the rest of the people will stay longer. Without private competition, the government also does not have the incentive to make the system more efficient. But the opposite is the so-called health reform in the U.S. without the public option. If you subsidize people who can't afford insurance and force people who can afford it to buy it, then the insurance companies will make a killing without lowering the costs. It is only when you have both public and private competition that you can have a chance to bring down cost.

Mitt Romney recently said that he is proud of his government insurance plan in Mass. He says it is much better than the Obama plan. He also does not think there should be a public option. Of course then he says the Mass plan is not perfect and that while it does a good job of covering people, it has not decrease cost. Dah! Let me see: No public option, no decrease cost. Shocking!