American Missive

LONG BEACH— The rallies are only two weeks away. Are you going to go? If you are on the right, will you stand and oppose? If you are on the left will you “punch back, twice as hard?” Are you a member of the enlightened left or the mad mob, lunatic fringe?

It is a sorry, sorry state of affairs that the post-partisan president is encouraging violence, if merely politically implied. A true debate on the topic cannot be had when the bill is being raced through congress and into everyone’s lives. Opponents, regular everyday people, begin to panic at the pace of which poor planning is passing. They feel they must shout to be heard. The proponents response only worsens the hysteria:

“If you get hit, we will punch back twice as hard!”
—Deputy Chief of Staff, Jim Messina

“They are just helping us understand the fringe that is messing up our meetings.”
—Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid (D-NV)

The saddest part of the entire ordeal is that the ruling party has absolutely no respect for the minority. There is such disdain for open dialogue concerning possible other means for resolving the insurance and health care reform debate. The root of this debate is reducing the cost of health care, as that is the biggest concern of every American. If it were dirt cheap, health insurance coverage would be a moot point.

Let it be known, there are other ideas available. The “public option” isn’t the only option. It isn’t even the most cost efficient according to the Congressional Budget Office, which reports that Mr. Obama’s current bill will add over $1.3 Trillion more debt to the country and fail to reduce costs, or even expand coverage to the uninsured. Faced with this disturbing news Mr. Obama has told his party to “close the sale with the insured” despite the fact that the original message was to insure the uninsured.

It has been reported that polls indicate Americans are open to the idea of a “public option.” Perhaps Americans are. Also in these polls is an even higher percentage of Americans (80%) who are happy with their current insurance and cost of insurance. As soon as more details appear about what the “public option” will be, less people are inclined to be for it. What this means is, everyone, at least 80% anyway,  is fine with the idea of a public option, so long as said public option has zero impact on anything in their life whatsoever, as they are very happy with their current option.

The other ideas? Mr. Krauthammer discussed one this morning. One I could get behind. The change is sweeping in its reform, yet managable in its impact on the individual. Read it for yourself:

(1) Tort reform: As I wrote recently, our crazy system of casino malpractice suits results in massive and random settlements that raise everyone’s insurance premiums and creates an epidemic of defensive medicine that does no medical good, yet costs a fortune.

An authoritative Massachusetts Medical Society study found that five out of six doctors admitted they order tests, procedures and referrals — amounting to about 25 percent of the total — solely as protection from lawsuits. Defensive medicine, estimates the libertarian/conservative Pacific Research Institute, wastes more than $200 billion a year. Just half that sum could provide a $5,000 health insurance grant — $20,000 for a family of four — to the uninsured poor (U.S. citizens ineligible for other government health assistance).

What to do? Abolish the entire medical-malpractice system. Create a new social pool from which people injured in medical errors or accidents can draw. The adjudication would be done by medical experts, not lay juries giving away lottery prizes at the behest of the liquid-tongued John Edwardses who pocket a third of the proceeds.

The pool would be funded by a relatively small tax on all health-insurance premiums. Socialize the risk; cut out the trial lawyers. Would that immunize doctors from carelessness or negligence? No. The penalty would be losing your medical license. There is no more serious deterrent than forfeiting a decade of intensive medical training and the livelihood that comes with it.

(2) Real health-insurance reform: Tax employer-provided health care benefits and return the money to the employee with a government check to buy his own medical insurance, just as he buys his own car or home insurance.

There is no logical reason to get health insurance through your employer. This entire system is an accident of World War II wage and price controls. It’s economically senseless. It makes people stay in jobs they hate, decreasing labor mobility and therefore overall productivity. And it needlessly increases the anxiety of losing your job by raising the additional specter of going bankrupt through illness.

The health care benefit exemption is the largest tax break in the entire U.S. budget, costing the government a quarter-trillion dollars annually. It hinders health-insurance security and portability as well as personal independence. If we additionally eliminated the prohibition on buying personal health insurance across state lines, that would inject new and powerful competition that would lower costs for everyone.