Back Atcha

After my letter to the editor on 2/1/14, Tom Newcomb, who I don't know, wrote a diatribe about my letter taking me to task.  He was obviously a right wing conservative who got his information about our health care problems in this country from Fox News.   He said that Obamacare was passed by "we the dems".  LOL  Bottom-line, he totally distrusted government as any solution to our problems.  Here is what I wrote back.

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Tom Newcomb

Anecdotes and disparate factoids do not refute the main point I made.  The legitimate profit objective of the private enterprise system is incompatible with the public’s interest in determining and executing an optimal societal health care policy.

Governmental programs and legislation are often less than perfect or down right misguided sometimes but at least the citizens get a vote as to whether those who made these calls get to stay in office.  It is messy, but changes ultimately get made.  There is no such balance of power when the private sector or your employer controls your health care coverage.  

One of the best explanations of the pricing abuses in our health care system is the highly acclaimed investigative report in Time Magazine, “The Bitter Pill” that came out last March.  Our system is killing us with excessive costs from virtual monopolies with no competition or constraints on pricing.  It makes our US businesses uncompetitive in the world economy and costs us jobs. 

Your comments about US health care spending in relation to GDP (18%) versus other first-world countries (next closest is about 12%) was funny in its logic. You don’t think that other first-world countries enjoy the same pricing advantages for food and energy?  Don’t forget that in the denominator of US GDP is spending supporting our military industrial complex, an enormous part of our economy and having no size comparison in other countries.  This makes our spending as a percent of GDP even more over the top.  By the way, our health care system is deemed middle of the pack not by the “measure of life expectancy” but by a comprehensive analysis of societal medical outcomes.  The fact that we are the only first-world country of about 38 without Universal Health Care (50 million uninsured) adds tremendous friction costs as we deal with our uninsured population.

I come to my conclusions after spending the better part of four decades in the private sector, more than half of it working for one of the largest US health insurance carriers. It was fine company that played by the rules but was handcuffed with wasteful 50 state regulation and monopolistic pricing of our medical industrial complex.

 It is my belief that certain societal needs are not appropriately met by market forces.  National defense, the safety of our food and water, managing our infrastructure, etc. are most appropriately handled by government.   Our present heath care system is broken and a reasonable solution is one central health care plan for all.  It is remarkable to me how much senior citizens universally love their government run single-payer insurance called Medicare. 

Fred Campau 2/2/14

Misdirecting the blame

This is a Letter to the Editor was published in the Wilmington Star News on February 1, 2014.  It is ironic that it was in the paper on the first day of my life that I became eligible for Medicare.

 

Misdirecting the blame

 

Sunday's "60 Minutes" had a gripping segment on the failure of our health care system in dealing with mental illness. A women's support group related the experiences of their loved ones being denied care, often with tragic consequences. Time and again, they blamed insurance companies for denying coverage.

The majority of Americans get their health insurance from their employers, who purchase plans in the for-profit private enterprise system we Americans hold sacred.

Employers buy coverage that aligns with their profit objectives or budgetary constraints. Some plans are rich in benefits, but most … not so much.

People are quick to blame the insurance company when coverage is denied. This is shooting the messenger.

 

Usually, people are getting what they or their employer paid for. The message is that whenever the profit motive of employers and insurance carriers drive the design and administration of health care benefits, patients often don't get what they really need.

 

The U.S. health care system is the most expensive in the world, delivering mediocre results.

Many parts are an unfettered monopoly with no competition or pricing constraints. Profit is king, not the patient.

 

We need a universal, single-payer system under which policy is determined by "we the people," and not by a private enterprise. When this happens, we will be the last first-world country to finally figure this out.

Fred Campau, Wilmington