Today’s strip touches on the recently-surfaced idea of an Opt Out portion of the health care reform bill which is working its way through both intestines of congress.

Here are my skeptical thoughts and predictions:

• Invest in insurance companies because whatever the final law, they’ll be the big winners.
• The U.S. has the “greatest health care in the world” and we rank 21st in life expectancy – that statistic nearly made me spit out my Jalapeno Cheddar Tortilla Combos brand snack with Crunchy Oven baked Shell made with Stone Ground Corn with a Jalapeno & Cheddar flavored filling and Horde-flavored World of Warcraft Mountain Dew Game Fuel. I wish I knew what was killing us.
• I was mildly encouraged by the notion of an Opt Out until I heard that it was for States and not individuals. In the current rumored incarnation, any individual who doesn’t buy the minimal health insurance will be fined. Also, in the latest version, States will only be able to start Opting Out in 2014.
• Whatever the fine, I bet health insurance companies will start offering the minimum-government-required policy for one dollar less. “Pay us $1,499 or pay the government $1,500″
• Any guesses what the minimum-required health insurance will cover?
• A clarification, in the strip I have Socks repeatedly say “free” health care. The current plan isn’t to provide everyone “free” health care but if there’s a government-run public option, we’re certain to see some of the currently uninsured receive free care and the states will be more than happy to have those people off their books. Many current versions of the bill (just a reminder, there’s no final version yet so this is all in flux) feature a government-run “public option” for individuals which is meant to provide government competition to the health insurance industries. If we the people own this insurance company, what price do we want to charge ourselves? This law is being written by Democrats so I’m sure it’ll feature a progressive cost structure set up to charge a sliding scale with a lot of people who are currently uninsured paying nothing. A Democrat friend thought we’d never have government run health care because of America’s long history with capitalism. I reminded him that though Americans respect capitalism and the free market, they LOVE free stuff more.
• Health Insurance and health care are two different things and I’m not sure when everyone forgot that.
• For all these reasons, as health care reform, whatever the end result will be much more of a band aid than a cure all.

– Steve

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This entry was posted on Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 7:38 am and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.