Legislature passes health plan pushed by Gov. Crist to cover un...

Great. Now if he can tackle the property tax system that requires non-residents to subsidize residents property taxes, we might be able to someday more to Florida.

Mustafa Younis,
Cahirman & Associate Professor
Florida International University,
William B. Cissel, Ph.D., MSPH, CHES, David Bernstein, J.D., Esq., Hassan Younies

E-mail Mustafa Younis, et al.

Affordable health care for all Americans has been an issue since the Truman administration. However, within the global market, health care has become a burden on multinational corporations headquartered in the United States. Furthermore, it has become more burdensome for American families. The main reason for bankruptcy in the United States is the inability to pay for medical expenses. In 2006 more women filed for bankruptcy than enrolled in colleges and universities. Most of these bankruptcies were the result of an inability to pay for health care. The United States is one of very few industrialized countries that have health insurance linked to employment. Since individuals, in collaboration with their health care providers, know more about their health than the insurance firms, the most obvious reason for this system is for the insurer to be able to insure mainly the healthy members of the population. The premise is that the healthiest members of the population are the ones who are able to work. The debate regarding health care as a right or privilege has not been substantially settled. Should public health care be treated as a right? Or is it a privilege? Should the businesses that comprise the health care industry be treated as a regulated monopoly?

Many leaders in the health care industry keep telling us that Americans do not need a health care system run or controlled by the government. Whether it is run by the government or private enterprise, people want and clearly need affordable health care.

One part of the solution for reducing the escalating cost of health care is to create a single health insurance payer or a quasi-governmental health insurance agency. The proposed corporation would negotiate drug prices and payments for hospitals and physicians and would provide malpractice insurance to health care providers. As a natural monopoly, such an insurance agency would have lower costs due to economies of scale. With a single insurer, reimbursement and billing would be standardized, which in turn would reduce the cost of services provided by hospitals, physicians, and other health care providers. This would result in an economically efficient health system, providing access to care through equitable financing, efficient supply of services, and financial sustainability.

Another key facet of the solution is to stop linking health insurance to employment. If the healthiest members of the population were permitted to obtain health insurance outside the system insuring the vast majority of the population, the costs for care of the rest of the population would be inordinately expensive. The final facet of the proposed solution is including health promotion and disease prevention services within the health insurance program. It behooves the program to have clients improve their fitness and mental/emotional well-being to avoid expensive health care services. In long run, market forces would moderate demand for health care.

This "plan" is a joke. It is bad public policy and will do little to help the uninsured. What I got out of it is that "it will not cost the taxpayers a dime", "that if it covers one person it is a success". If this is "historic legislation" let us hope and pray that Crist does not become VP. It is another boon for the insurers and continued denial of the real problem with our healthcare system.

The uninsured will not flock to these policies, since they do not protect anyone from bankruptcy in case of serious illness. They do not represent health care security. They are more the same from insurance companies whose goal is making profits, not taking care of anyone's health. They are not worth the monthly premiums. We need real reform that gives every American the health care they need. The US is the only country on earth where people are bankrupted when they get sick.