The Conservative
Affordable Health Care Solution
We will have, sooner or
later, a better health care payment system than we now have in this country. Presently, the sum of all doctors’,
hospitals’ and other providers’ charges (as more or less regulated by what
insurers, Medicare and Medicaid will pay) is far in excess of what individuals
and these payers actually pay because of uninsured recipients of health care
who just cannot or prefer not to pay their bills. This results in the charges for everybody being
increased to cover the cost of these unpaid bills.
Are they paying, or are you?
The “mandate” provision in the Affordable Care Act will relieve most Americans from thereby paying for the care received by “freeloaders” in the present system. Some will still choose, however, to remain uninsured and pay a penalty to IRS for the privilege of doing so, but most studies indicate the “mandate” will basically solve the problem. Most will purchase health insurance, including the healthy as well as the sick. This is what happened in Massachusetts when then-Governor Romney introduced such a plan.
If the “mandate” is struck
down by the Supreme Court, and insurers are still forced to provide health
insurance on a “guaranteed issue” basis regardless of medical histories, the
insurance market will disappear in a whirlpool of rising premiums and companies
dropping out caused by insurance being purchased by those about to incur
significant health care expenses. If the
“guaranteed issue” part of the Act is eliminated along with the mandate,
however, we will be back to square one insofar as this part of the law is
concerned, leaving many Americans without health insurance.
Solving
the health care problem through the use of private insurers requires the
continued existence of the mandate, pressuring uninsureds to purchase coverage. That
is the conservative approach which will result in more people being insured than at present without
dismantling our existing system of health insurance. If this conservative approach, preserving the
insurance industry, is not allowed to go into effect, the alternative is for
the government to go into the health insurance business, establishing a “single
payer” system, as in Medicare, which is almost universally approved by senior
citizens. Canada and most
industrialized countries have taken this approach.
It
is odd that opponents of Obama Care, as they call it, are fighting a
conservative health care solution, the alternative to which is a radical one to
which they would be far more opposed. So, if our Supreme Court, with its five to
four conservative majority, rules the mandate to be unconstitutional, they may
be opening the door to a far more radical solution to the problem of paying for
health care. Are they wise enough to
discern this and declare the mandate to be constitutional?
Jack Lippman
How
to Speed Through Airport Security
(As told by Michael Chertoff, former chief of Homeland Security, to Brendan Greeley in the April 16 issue
of Bloomberg Businessweek)
It starts before you get to the airport.
Get your liquids in a clear, quart-size bag. I keep a cache of travel-size
toothpaste and shaving cream in a sandwich-size baggie; I’ll reuse it on about
a half-dozen trips before it wears out. Put the baggie on top of everything in
your carry-on. The people who have the hardest time are the ones opening up
their bags in line to find their liquids. That wastes precious time. I put my
laptop and Kindle in an accessible pocket outside my carry-on.
Next, take your ID out of your wallet
and put it in a breast pocket with the boarding pass.
I almost always wear a sports jacket
when traveling. Why do I do that? Pockets! Take all of your small electronics
and put them in jacket pockets, along with change, keys, and your wallet. When
you get to the line, you just take your jacket off and put it in the tray.
That’s the main trick: Instead of unloading my pants pockets in the line, I
prepack my jacket. In the airport, after you show your documents, put your
license back in your pocket—you don’t want to lose it.
At the bag screening, the shoes go off
first—I always wear loafers. Then I put my jacket in a tray behind the shoes,
and my liquids on top of the jacket. The laptop goes in the next tray, then my
carry-on follows. I sequence it that way so I can reverse the unpacking process
at the other end. You put your shoes and your jacket on, then your hands are
free to grab the liquids and the laptop, and the bag’s right there. I don’t use
the benches. I’m dressed within a few seconds. I’ll chitchat with the screeners,
if they have time. Occasionally people will come up to me, and they always ask
why I can’t get out of going through the line. I tell them because we’re all in
the same boat. Or on the same plane.
(This piece is obviously directed at male travelers. For women, I suppose the alternative is to wear a blazer or coat and load up its pockets as Chertoff does with his sports jacket.)
JL
Something to think about: Do you think the number of tornadoes striking the country over the past year is the result of climate change, or is it just a passing blip on the timeline of such storms over the years. What are your thoughts about this?
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Lippman
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