[NOTE: Sorry if this points out the obvious, but this train of thought has occupied my mind for most of the day and I really want to say something about it]
For the past few months I've been listening to the arguments both for and against healthcare reform, the pillars of healthcare reform, and most importantly the options that have been displayed. Out of all this comes a really unfortunate conclusion: There are a LOT of ways for us to lose on healthcare reform, and a corresponding number of ways for health insurance companies to win.
The biggest reason we can lose so many ways is simple--there can be no compromise between health insurance companies and the general public. This isn't a declaration of an ideal or a call to war. It's a factual statement based on what we know and how we've seen health insurance companies operate.
A health insurance company's goal is simple--make as much money as possible while paying out as little as possible. The general public, on the other hand, wants health insurance companies to pay out when they get sick. This would obviously be a bad business practice for insurance companies, because they would then lose money. So we're stuck with a zero-sum game. If a solution benefits the insurance companies, it definitely won't benefit us. If a solution benefits us, it is going to cost the insurance companies some of their revenue.
So, how do we lose? Simply by accepting any solution that does not have a public option. If we keep the system we have in place, the general public will see more and more denials of service by insurance companies, premiums will skyrocket, and there will be a lot of people getting the bare minimum of health insurance while paying an exorbitant premium. The winner--insurance companies, who get to pay less and collect more payments.
What about mandatory health care without a public option? This would be even better for the insurance companies, because they would all get millions of new customers without having to increase the service they provide. Given that the healthcare would be mandatory, they might conceivably deny more people service. The most they would have to face is a congressional inquiry and, as we've seen, most congresspeople are very sympathetic to the insurance companies and their lobbyists.
Healthcare with a public option is the only scenario in which the general public wins. If everyone can get healthcare through the government, the insurance companies are going to be forced to alter their practices and products to compete. If Medicare, for instance, is available to all, people can see the health insurance package offered by an entity with significantly less profit-driven motivation than insurance companies have. Insurance companies would have to lower their prices or provide better service or both in order to compete with a public option. This would greatly benefit every single person with healthcare. It'd even benefit the employees of the health insurance companies! A public option would hurt the insurance companies, though, so they try to stop it.
The problem is that one group or the other is going to win this one. There may be compromises, there will be some kowtowing to the healthcare lobbyists, but any reform that doesn't include a public option hurts the public. Hurts us.
If you have not contacted your congresspeople and let them know how you want them to vote, you've got to do it now. Most of our congresspeople appear to have set their spines aside when they were elected, but we need to let them know that for all the special interests, for all the lobbyists and for all the pundits the people they really have to worry about pleasing are us, the grassroots. We've all got a stake in this, so please--call your congresspeople and tell them that your vote in November depends on their vote for a public option.