Healthcare: Don't fear the Reaper...

There are two truisms that will not go away when it comes to healthcare reform. The first is we are all going to die, no getting around that. The second is that the demand for intervention that may delay the day of reckoning will always outstrip the supply.

I pose the following questions: Is it better to spend the $10,000 to save the life of a child? Of course, $100,000, yes. $1,000,000?

How about this: Is it better to spend $1,000,000 to prolong a terminally ill patient’s painful life by a few days? A week? A month?

While the questions are valid, the answers to them are beyond me. It is not a burden I hope to shoulder any time in my life. However, that is a reality to some people and I can understand the anguish they must go through.

When it comes to healthcare reform, we know that those with the most to gain are the 15% of the population who are uninsured but it will be at a cost to the other 85% and I am not adverse to this because I believe part of the role of government is to protect the citizenry. If that protection comes in the form of medical care, then so be it.

Nevertheless, reform can take many avenues. In earlier entries, I mentioned pharmaceutical price rollbacks, and reducing patent lockouts. We should also look at malpractice reform. Physician’s insurance rates are among the highest anywhere. The system itself is riddled with waste; no one seems to deny that. Therefore, I think the best approach to overall healthcare is to tackle chunks that are manageable and not subject to the buffoonery that we see on the daily news. I honestly thought I would never see the day where we would show an armed protestor near a presidential gathering. Somewhere somebody is laughing at us and we deserve it.

I welcome your feedback.