One of the problems with a blog as opposed to a paper journal is that you can’t write about some of the important stuff. Personal stuff that happens that has no business being shared with others, but is still incredibly important.

Like how our health care system has become a nightmare, both in the ridiculousness of the paperwork, and the way that some of those within the system treat those who use its services.

What insane invertebrate designed this system?

The most frustrating problem is that reform is held up on all sides, and those who are for true reform can’t manage to say the right things to let people know how serious the problems are, and how reform is a good thing.

Let’s take Medicare and health care costs are our example, shall we? One (of the many) charges leveled against a national health care system is that the bureaucracy is inefficient and would only inflate the costs of services. I’m sure everyone has heard that charge, yes? That is patently untrue.

Medicare overhead costs: 2%
Private Insurance overhead costs: 14%

Fourteen percent as opposed to two percent. Just consider how much of your monthly premium is going to pay some paper pusher as opposed to going to pay actual health care costs.

Then there is the canard about quality of service. Canada has significantly lower national health care spending with its national health care system, yet the quality of care is the same as or better than health care in the US.

Then there is my favorite, the bit where people complain about not wanting to pay for health care for the poor and undeserving (And we have the audacity to call ourselves a Christian nation? Please. But that’s another rant entirely.) Guess what. We’re paying for that health care already. Unfortunately, what we’re paying for is emergency care and hospitalization, which is incredibly more expensive than preventive care.

How we pay for the care is in one of two ways: Higher costs for products and services, and higher costs for medical services.

Higher costs for services come because companies that provide health insurance for their employees and then pass those costs along to the customer in the form of higher prices. (I heard earlier this week that the percentage of the cost of a new car that is employee’s benefits is higher than the cost of the steel) The problem with this set-up is that companies (obviously) find it cheaper to not provide benefits to employees, and so we are finding a rising percentage of Americans who are working, yet still lack health insurance.

If you have never had the misfortune of going without health insurance, let me tell you, it’s frightening.

The second way that we pay for the health care of the uninsured is through increased medical and hospital bills. When someone lacks health insurance, and cannot afford routine medical care, all their medical treatment occurs in the emergency room, where doctors are bound by law to treat patients who need care. And if the situation is grave enough, the patients then entire the hospital. There are two points here. These are huge expenses that the hospital or medical facility has to absorb, and the only way to do it is to pass the costs along to other patients–patients who can pay.

What makes the situation even worse is that many of these situations could have been resolved with routine medical care that costs next to nothing when compared to emergency care and hospitalization. Treating high blood pressure reduces the incidence of strokes. Treating diabetes reduces a whole host of medical problems, going to the doctor to be treated for a cold for the flu, keeps a patient out of the hospital with pneumonia.

But people don’t see this. They don’t get it.

Health care should not be a luxury. A healthy population is one that is better able to work (increasing productivity!) and one that has lower across the board medical costs, as use of emergency services and hospitals decreases.

But that’s okay. You go right along calling yourself a devout Christian and railing against universal medical care. But keep reading the bible. Perhaps one day you’ll actually get the bits about caring for the needy.

I just hope for the rest of our sakes that day is sooner rather than later.