I know this is going to be a touchy subject for some but I hope that people will read and digest what is being said in this blog.
Medical insurance is available to all of us, at a cost. Unfortunately for many people the cost is more than they can afford, whether it is offered via their employer or purchased from an insurance company directly.
Insurance companies, as do all businesses, exist to provide a service and make a profit. If the cost of doing business exceeds the revenue received for their service an entity will fold. Insurance companies cover a huge amount of our collective medical expenses.
Let's look at why medical service is costing Americans so much today. A lot of the problem can be summed up in one word...lawsuits.
There have been too many juries award what I believe are excessive awards to defendants. This ranges from malpractice to wrongful death and all things in between and from side to side.
In a fairly recent letter to President Obama on this subject I stated that instead of nationalizing health insurance one should first look at how costs could be lowered and, thus, make premiums more available to all Americans. (Once again, I am sure that one of his aides failed to deliver my words of wisdom.)
What if legislation was introduced to limit punitive awards? What would the effect be on the cost of insurance? I believe that we would find that it would be less.
I do feel that if a family loses the breadwinner (or main breadwinner) wrongfully that there should be some recompense. However, if the person lost to loved ones earned $40,000 a year and had ten good years of work left there is no logical reason to award tens or scores of millions.
I know these millions are supposed to repay people for pain, suffering, and the like. The real problem is that money DOES NOT make that pain and suffering go away.
Yes, the family should receive something but the monetary award should not be totally influenced by attorneys who should have been actors earning academy awards for their performances.
I can hear the screams now but I can assure you I have been there.
When I was 20 away at college I lost my father in an accident involving a train where evidence clearly showed the railroad company was in the wrong. My mother, on the advice of a wimpy attorney, settled out of court for a grand total of $50,000. My dad was 51. He had recently gotten back to very good health and could easily have worked to age 65. I strongly believe that my mother should have received a much greater sum than she did but not tens of millions, regardless of how easily it was to prove the railroad company in the wrong.
All that said, when insurance companies have to pay hundreds of millions for claims and lawsuits they end up raising the premiums we pay for coverage.
When doctors have to pay astronomically high premiums for malpractice insurance, just in case, the costs of medical services increase.
Thus, my argument in favor of placing a cap on punitive awards. Let's do something effective to lower insurance costs.
And, by the way, the health care bill being proposed will cost somewhere between One and Two Trillion Dollars to fund.
People, where does that money come from?
Heaven? I don't think so.
Ultimately, it will come primarily from the middle class, Main Street USA.
Whether that trillion-plus dollars is repaid in the form of increased income taxes or raising one or more of the dozens of other taxes we all pay, make no mistake, in the end, the piper must be paid.
Please think this over.
We, Main Street USA, have been mortgaged to the hilt already. The deficit in our national budget that has been incurred in our names is staggering.
Insurance costs can be brought under control and, thus, premiums should lower, making affordable plans available to us all.
We DO NOT need nationalized health insurance.
We DO NEED people willing to find solutions to problems that really are solutions and not something that merely puts it off to another day (or another administration).
Over for now,
Main Street One
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