Adjust insurance.

Reforming health care : Adjust insurance involvement.

Lately, much is being made of the terrible state of health care in this country. Democrats say the government has to do something about it. Republicans claim the industry can police itself. During the recent presidential campaign, one voice had a particularly ironic ring to it: John McCain, the GOP’s Chosen One, claimed "market forces" would solve the problem, ignoring the fact that "market forces" caused the mess in the first place. This man who’s received government-administered care all his life warned of the terrible consequences of allowing bureaucrats to control health care. With no worries about his own access to health care, McCain wants insurance company execs to continue denying care to people who need it while receiving fat bonuses for performing that odious task.In the long run, the goal must be universal single-payer coverage. But as much as we want to kick those evil insurance companies out of the health-care picture, it won’t happen overnight. In the first place, it’s just not wise to tell an entire industry to simply fold up its tents and go away quietly. Such a move would create so much chaos that even the recent banking/auto scare would seem like an economic boom in comparison.Instead, Congress should pass reforms that squeeze so much profit out of insurance involvement that companies voluntarily drop out of that part of the business. That would give them time to adjust their business models and move personnel to other departments, minimizing any resulting layoffs. Insurance businesses have a lot of irons in many different fires (pun definitely intended). They’ll find other ways to use the resources they now focus on the medical industry.At the same time, Congress must establish a comprehensive government plan that is cheaper than private insurance. Such a policy would be so seductive that people will abandon insurance companies, hastening their decision to bail. You see, millions of people still believe private insurance is superior to government-administered care. That misconception is based on the fact that Medicare has so many holes that force beneficiaries to buy supplemental insurance to cover the gaps that were manufactured by meddling insurance lobbyists in the first place. Talk about a vicious circle!In the next installment of this series, I’ll discuss the reason Congress must take control of health care now, in spite of the pressure to let it go while they give attention to all the other problems the country is facing.

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