Mr. Deregulation Wants to Gamble with Your Health

Yesterday was a very frustrating day. Aside from having my lunch spoiled by some Palin Mombies on CNN (see post from 10/14) I also had what was a relaxing drive ruined by a McCain radio advertisement. McCain/Palin political ads have become like aural car accidents for me - I'm horrified at what I'm hearing, but I can't turn away. And so it was yesterday, when for the first time I heard an ad comparing the health care coverage proposals put forth by both candidates, from a McCain point of view. And what a convoluted tale it was! It was really difficult to keep from yelling at the radio in protest of all the lies, distortions, and sleaze, but since that wouldn't have amounted to anything productive, I decided to do a little research and blog about it.

Turns out that Mr. Deregulation can't limit himself to large corporations, finances, mortgages, and the stock market. Now he wants to deregulate health care coverage. His proposal would virtually eliminate regulation of private insurance companies. McCain's goal here is to allow people to buy insurance from different states, with the idea that a state other than the one you live in may have a company that offers cheaper insurance for you. Now, there's a saying used in all walks of life that is applicable here. You really do get what you pay for, even as far as health care goes. The companies that offer the cheapest insurance coverage plans today are the same ones that severely restrict what medications they pay for, which doctors they pay for, which ancillary services are covered, what hospitals you can be admitted to, and what studies are covered. It's really simple economics, my friends. If an insurance company is asking very little money from you to give you coverage, then that company has very little money to pay out for your health care. And what little money you pay them is first reduced by the percent they keep to "administer" your plan for you.

So ask yourselves. Do you want to go to the doctor that offers the cheapest medical care in your state? And if that doctor is over an hour from your home, do you want to have to drive that long to see him or her, or would you rather go to a doctor who is in your hometown? Do you want to go to the University Hospital in your area, where the doctors really are the best in the country, in order to have your cancer treated? Or is it just as good to go to a community hospital that may or may not offer high quality care, but is the cheapest for your insurance company? Do you want your doctor to make the decisions about what medical tests are necessary for you, or do you want the insurance company to do that, whose decision-makers are not trained in ANY medical field? If your doctor believes that you need physical therapy, but your insurance company disagrees so they won't cover any, is it ok that you just don't get physical therapy? If your life might be saved by an experimental cancer treatment, but your insurance won't cover it, are you comfortable with just dying instead?

Because all of these things are happening today, right now, for some people who are unable to afford better health insurance. And the only defense that patients and their doctors have against these sometimes unfair and occasionally dangerous practices is the fact that there are regulations that govern insurance companies. These regulations make it clear that some "corner cutting" measures that insurers try to implement are not legal. Today, you and your doctor can fight and usually win against an insurance company that is trying to save money at your expense. But if McCain is elected, he will eliminate these protections, and there will be nothing that you or your doctor (at least the one you used to see, who you now aren't allowed to go to) will be able to do about it. Think about the economic crisis our country is now experiencing. There is very clear evidence that deregulation of mortgage companies and banks is largely responsible for this mess. The tragedy of this deregulation is that people are losing their homes and savings. The deregulation of health insurance may have far more dire consequences.

Let's forget for right now that John McCain's health care proposal will mean that more families have to pay for their own coverage than already do, because his proposal will effectively increase the costs of health care premiums for your employer, and therefore some of them will choose not to continue to pay for any health insurance at all. And forget that his "tax credit" will simply be eaten up by the taxes you will now have to pay on the money (if any) your employer does contribute to your health care plan, as if the premiums were part of your salary. And don't worry about the fact that McCain does not feel like he needs to make sure that all Americans have health care coverage, and that after 10 years following his plan, only 2 million more Americans will have coverage than do today (and that means that 44 million of us still won't have any). And that McCain's plan, on top of deregulation, doesn't include any measures to make certain that the quality of health care in this country improves. And ignore what we all know really happens with deregulation on this country - that a few greedy people (often personal friends of John and Cindy!) get richer, while the vast majority of Americans pay the price when our lives get worse.

Right now, think about what you want to happen to your own child if they become seriously ill under McCain's health care proposal. Are you willing to gamble on your child's life, and hope that the handful of doctors that your insurance company will pay for are smart enough to figure out what's going on, especially if your insurer won't pay for some of the tests that the doctor needs in order to make a diagnosis? What if you are still one of the many uninsured Americans, and you can't afford to go to any doctor? And what if the medication that has the best chance of helping your son or daughter isn't covered by your insurance company, and McCain's deregulation means that you don't even have the chance to fight that decision? Because those dilemmas will be a part of the future for many Americans if John McCain is elected. And unlike John McCain, most of us are not ridiculously rich, so we won't be able to afford to pay out of our own pockets to get the best care available. It seems that it's quite easy for McCain to make our country's health care situation even worse when he and his children won't be affected.

I don't know about you, but my son and daughter are far too precious to me to allow John McCain to leave their fates up to the lowest bidder.