2009.01.24 Health Care Insanity

Each day when I go to the mail box almost half of the mail I receive is competing advertising for my health care dollars. The alternatives are so numerous that making any decision would be a daunting task. I wonder how much of our health care dollars are spent on this out of control effort to sign up customers. I don't even read this mail as I have Medicare part 'A' and since I have not been to a doctor for anything in over 20 years my hope is that I will meet my demise before the ambulance arrives. I do worry about the effect that our present health care system (or lack there of) is having on our economy. With health care costs comprising as much as one third of the cost of hiring an employee it is no wonder that employers are laying off workers. I believe that the greatest stimulation to the economy would be to relieve employers of this onerous obligation by instituting a single payer health care system. I believe this would do more to create jobs than the current plan to throw a trillion dollars at the problem which in the end will probably be ineffectual.

Most countries have single payer systems while we argue about the effect of socializing health care I hear no arguments about socializing the banking system or the auto industry. I believe that a well managed single payer system would remove the insurance industries profits, the drug companies greed, and the obligation of employers to supply employees with health care.