What We Really Need to Make Our Healthcare System Work

Democrats on Capitol Hill determined to pass healthcare reform have finally reached common ground with their Republican counterparts.

The final push, spearheaded by former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, includes a provision to lower the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 55. According to MSNBC, that would make 30 million more Americans eligible to buy into the popular government-run program.

Other elements of the reform include allowing the uninsured to choose the same plans available to government employees. Whichever plan is chosen, pre-existing conditions will no longer be the basis for denial of coverage.

With the worst of the debate all but over, pitfalls still remain. For one thing, without a public option, which would have forced competition among insurers, there is little being offered to control the rise in premiums - unless additional provisions are added later. And there will still be up wards of 24 million uninsured.

While not perfect, it is still a step in the right direction. Most agree, our healthcare system needs a great deal of improvement. However, scare-tactics have been driving the debate from the onset, and people are wary of real change when it hits close to home. It's the devil you know -vs- the devil you don't know.

As long as we have a for-profit healthcare system, it will always be riddled with greed and corruption. One only has to look as far as the banking debacle to secure evidence of the pitfalls of capitalism. Our healthcare system is not the exception.

Hospitals don't make money unless doctors order tests and use operating rooms. Doctors can lose the privilege to practice at hospitals where they don't order enough tests or admit patients. Then it all comes back to the insurance companies. They don't make money when their insureds have expensive procedures and treatments - they would rather keep their premiums and pay no one but their stockholders. The system works against itself.

Unless and until we move toward a system that is not pitting doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies against one another in their quest for profits, we will never have true reform.
And while the overhead circus goes on, watching helplessly from the ground is the patient.

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