The Health Care Class Five Hurricane - Part 1

I think the behemoth of complexity that is the new health care legislation is an appropriate place to start this blog. Who really understands the health care bill anyway? It seems like only those with a PHD in economics and a massive amount of free time have a fighting chance. According to Politico, the health care bill was a laughable 1,990 pages! That's like reading the Old Testament twice, except even more boring (Sorry Obadiah). I think it's safe to say that only a select few individuals know what the bill actually contains, not to mention understnads how it will effect our country. Apparently, student loan reform was somehow shoved in there, which makes no sense. How is the average American supposed to sort through this? I think it's impossible, unless, again, you want to read the entire thing and freshen up on econometrics. I only know what I've read on Yahoo News during my boring moments at work and what I've seen on the national news -- that is when I make it home by 5:30pm, which is almost never. The following is my uninformed opinion about the new health care legislation. I apologize in advance for how obnoxious, repetitive and rambling my thoughts are.

The bill seems to have some good parts to it. It forces insurance companies to cover sick people (Isn't that what they're supposed to do in the first place?). Those with pre-existing conditions can now get insurance and those who get sick can not be dropped by their insurance provider. Is there really anyone who thinks those are bad ideas? These seem like no-brainers.

Unfortunately it doesn't appear to be all home runs. One controversial flash point is the insurance mandate. The mandate will involve a fine for those who refuse to purchase insurance. This doesn't seem like that big of a deal to me, but then again nobody likes the government pushing them around. The idea of the government forcing everyone to get insurance seems a bit too Big Brotherish, even if it is in everyone's best interest. Hopefully the mandate will stop the "I use the emergency room for primary care and can't pay" people who help make hospitals ridiculously expensive. Everyone goes through gaps of insurance coverage but depending on free medical service from emergency rooms screws everyone over. The hospitals take the hit and then pass it on to their paying customers. Does that justify an insurance mandate though? Tough call.

The most troubling portion of the bill to me has to be the funding related to the mandate. There are government provided subsidies to help the financially troubled meet the mandate and purchase insurance. This seems like a good idea (Who doesn't want to help out the poor?) but won't this cost the government loads of money? There are a lot of poor people out there. Are we the tax payers really going to subsidize millions of people's insurance? It sure appears that way...

Now I know that we are not exactly coming off the most fiscally responsible Presidency with George W at the helm. He spent money like nobody's business. Iraq and Afghanistan alone cost us somewhere near a bizilion dollars, not to mention the bank crisis and bailout that insued in his last year as President. Obama is inheriting a financial mess, no doubt about it. I feel bad for the guy. One would think, though, that instituting an expensive social program at a time like this would be irresponsible. It makes no sense, barring some crazy economic theory. Unless John Meynard Keynes comes back from the grave and explains to me why we should spend loads of money while we're in mountains of debt and fighting off a wicked recession, I think it's a bad idea.

Inevitably someone is going to get hit with higher taxes. Rich people... I'm sorry but this doesn't look good. It's sure looking like the majority of the burden will fall upon those who benefit the least from this legislation: those making over $250,000 a year. I'm fine with this now, seeing as I would have to make over eight times my current salary to hit that threshold, but if I ever make a lot of money I'm going to be PISSED! Until then I'm down...

This concludes part 1 of the Health Care Hurrican. This subject is so vast that the act of typing out a mere half of my uninformed thoughts has taken me the better part of a work day. Please post any comments you have on the subject or any fact corrections. Being uninformed, I really have no idea whether what I said is actually right.