Another Sensible Conservative on Health Care

Philip Giraldi shows not all conservatives have gone off the fact-free, government takeover, death panel deep end on health care reform in The American Conservative.

It seems to me that the problem with most “conservative” commentators on the Obama health care reforms and on the health care situation in general is that few of them have been victims of the current system. They have had good health insurance through their employers all their lives and think that anyone outside the system is a deadbeat or an illegal immigrant. Having experienced first hand the downside of the system I would like to make a few comments. I would note that the current insurance structure basically stinks. It denies insurance to those who actually need it unless they are employed by a company that offers that benefit (fewer and fewer do). Insurance companies exist to make money, not to make people healthy, and there is no money to be made in paying out for those who are sick.

I do not favor a national health system but I do believe that every citizen should be able to buy into a group insurance plan without the insurance companies denying benefits for health conditions and for employment status. There is something very wrong with the current system which, I think, can be fixed without nationalization by improving access to what already exists. For what it’s worth, I know of a fairly large number of people my age more-or-less who are in health insurance limbos very similar to ours. They have fallen in the huge crack between employer provided group health plans and medicare and are now finding themselves either with no insurance or insurance that covers nothing and still costs many hundreds of dollars per month. It really is an uncaring system that only concerns itself with the bottom line.

It is reassuring to see the obvious flaws in our current health care system acknowledged in a major conservative publication as well as by others on the right. Here's hoping that more conservative voices will take up the necessary discussion of how to bring about better access to quality care for all of us instead of the misinformed temper tantrums we are currently seeing from too many opponents of reform.

--Ballard Burgher