The Wall Street Journal edit page is openminded enough to give space to full-throated cries for the policies of opposing ideologies, as we see in this mornings's "Jump Into the Risk Pool" by Ron Gettelfinger, president of the United Auto Workers. But there's no mystery why the Journal can be fearless about letting opponents speak, while the New York Times edit page rigidly restricts access to those parroting its own views -- the Leftist point of view is not very persuasive. Gettelfinger tries to make the case for socialized health care with dumb arguments like this:
Starbucks...operates in a competitive environment that is worlds away from manufacturing. But Starbucks now spends more money on health care than it does on coffee -- not unlike GM, which has for some time paid more money for health care than it does for steel. Starbucks, like GM, is finding out the hard way that America's benefits crisis cannot be solved by any one company or industry.
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www.poorandstupid.com is a blog I read everyday. It's an economic blog that Donald Luskin writes and he started it mainly to refute the lies of Paul Krugman. This item today got me thinking about health care. This is a very tough problem. The costs of our modern medicine are enormous. I know because my wife had medical care costing over $400,000 from 7/1/05 through 6/30/06 and totalling about $1,300,000 over the last 17 years. Blessedly God had us transferred to Boston in 1990 where the care is terrific and available. We didn't want to leave California but knowing that my wife had these problems and that the medical plan with my employer was good, I didn't want to risk her health by taking a perhaps less stable job with unstable benefits.  So we sacrificed to move. We really did not see God's hand in the move before we did it but as always God's plan has been perfect. But that's only my story.

The question is how do we provide medical care to our citizens--making it available and affordable. I don't think it should be free because then it would get overused and really sick people would have a wait to be seen. I hear that happens in the Canadian system. The plan I have cost me about $3000 ayear for the medical insurance (my share) and then deductibles and copays that could cost me another $3500/year. Actually it is always that high, plus another $500-$1000 for prescriptions. I'm out about $7500 per year. My wife's health is worth that to me--more if need be. That's why I think the medical care should come at some cost to you and you should be willing to pay it.  But sick people cannot afford to pay the whole cost of treatment so how do we do it? In the first place I don't really understand why it is your employer's job to provide medical benefits. But that's how the system developed and it works well for the vast majority of people so we should build on that in trying to take care of the uninsured and not reinvent the wheel. And just because General Motors wouldn't pay the costs directly in a national health care plan doesn't mean their share of the costs would be different. Somebody would have to pay those $'s. Perhaps John Kerry is on to something with his National Reinsurance Pool that would reimburse health insurers for individual claims over say $75,000/year. The ability to avoid major claims like my wife's would lower rates and make more insurers willing to take the risks. There may be devils in the details so I can't sign off on it yet but it should be worth a look. And HSA's should be considered. I know there are other good ideas short of socialized medicine which I believe would make the system worse.

One of the factors that is hard to overcome is the lack of competitive shopping for medical services. No one really asks what it is going to cost for a procedure mainly because no one pays their own bill and we aren't really qualified to question whether a procedure or test is really needed. Everyone wants a doctor or hospital they trust and that they consider the best. But I want to stress that to prevent overuse there has to some cost to the individual. A cost that can be afforded but that prevents wasteful trips to Dr.s offices. Insurance companies try cost control methods but it is met with resistance. There does need to be standards that medical providers meet and that have cost control teeth but the best plan will have the smallest government role in it. Government control will only make it worse.