Reform the Reform.

With health care reform virtually around the corner, what do we really know. What can we know. The thing as it, is a tome. Who among us can understand any of it. What we might know is likely to change before it's finalized.

Some things are pretty clear, and there is enough where we can do some deductive reasoning. It appears that the insurance companies are not in favor of it. I think they might be in a position to understand the body of the legislation, and can see a potential problem in less profits. It just doesn't seem to make a great deal of sense when you take into account that the government set into motion last april, a multi-million dollar ad campaign promoting health care reform, funded by the industry.

The whole thing appears now like some sort of a shill game, but if it is not, and reform ends up costing the insuarnce companies money, what then? Here's what I see happening. Smaller and weaker companies will fail. They, their assets, and their clents will be absorbed by largere more profitable companies. A consilidation of power, which we have seen too much of in this economy. I just don't think it bodes well for us as the consumer.

Then as time passes, these insurance companies will find a way around the laws meant to help us have affordable, effective insurance coverage. It is inevitable, and I think we have plenty of historical evidence to prove it will happen. To our rescue comes the public option; government run healthcare for those squeezed out by the insurance giants. So in the end we are all forced to pay for whatever lousy coverage we can get. And we will be forced. It is achingly clear that it is an integral part of the plan. It is mentioned time and time again in the media, as if it is a done deal.


I can only see my two greatest fears coming true out of this push. I will be forced to purchase insurance, and the governement will be providing health care. The only real power we have in this country any more is as consumers, and they seek to take this away from us. Then we have the government insurance debacle. Don't think I'm exagerating. The government is patently incapaple of administering insurance. Case in point. I have to go no further than the latest issue of Readers Digest. A department piece, That's Outrageous, points out how innefectively the govenment has managed medicare. They lose countless millions to fraud every year. I magine that going broader. You think we're in dept now.

Now, don't just paint me as a naysayer. I just now the nature of man. I know the nature of government, and I know the nature of the corporate world. It doesn't inspire a lot of trust. We need reform, but it needs to come as requlatory legislation alone. What we are looking at now has a lot of baggage, and I fear it is there to carry our money away.

By
W.K. Jones