Although the enacting legislation of the "Affordable" Care Act clearly mandated that certain things "shall happen" on specific dates, the Obama Administration is now clearly in disarray on the program, having delayed the implementation of the small business provisions and the income verification process. Previously, it has allowed certain businesses and segments of the economy to have "waivers." The formation and implementation of the individual state "exchanges" is in disastrous condition. The citizens, totally ticked off at the IRS, are madder than hell that the IRS is targeted to be the chief enforcer of the new law. Projected costs are soaring, plan benefits are decreasing.
In short, the forecast "train wreck" has started; the wheels are starting to leave the track.
I take no glee in this news. We have spent hundreds of billions of dollars trying to make this white elephant dance. We all have seen our insurance premiums escalate dramatically, yet we're now discovering that we "ain't seen nothin' yet!" They're talking, almost with a touch of laughter and glee, more increases as much as 400% within the next year!
The only answer is to make the cost of healthcare affordable to everyone. We will always have the chronically unemployed; that's a universal problem. But, they're a drag on society not only in terms of medical care but in other costs of society as well. I think, with that exception, everyone in the country would have some type of medical insurance if it was affordable and beneficial. You don't make it affordable by allowing costs to escalate. You make it affordable by capping how much insurance companies can charge, how much hospitals can charge and how big a profit drug companies can make. And you make the practice of medicine back into what it once was: an honorable profession.
It's a simple formula: encourage more people to enter the profession and you'll drive the costs down. Allow foreign companies to sell their drugs in the United States as long as they pass FDA muster. Let insurance be sold across state lines. Put a cap on how much hospitals can sell drugs and appliances for, say 125% of average retail. I'm sure there are innumerable bright ideas that, with a little thought, can be implemented to contain costs and we don't need a trillion-dollar agency to administer it and we don't need to drive any segment of the medical community out of business in the process.
Simply sitting back and shoving it to the American people is an unacceptable answer.
That's MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted.
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