Kristoff: Do We Really Want the Status Quo on Health Care?

I have a son, exactly like the one in the article. We've been in the hospital with him, at least once a year and in hospitals with him, in every State on the East Coast of America. Broken Bones, Stitches, Major Sprains etc.. and he also plays football and baseball. No injuries from the sports, just injuries from the everyday play time.

Ever had a kid that had to get stitches from sitting on the sidewalk, or breaking a toe, because he walked across the street with no shoes.

I have one of those.

Our Health Care has been wonderful and we have only had 2 rate hikes in 8 years.

I like the status quo for us. I have not one complaint.

The answer of this question is to simply look around the world and see who is providing the best cost-effective health care, and adopt the system.

Unfortunately, it is an answer that many people do not like. And those people will doom us to the bottom of the heap in every measure of health care performance.

Late last year my health insurer (United) dropped my coverage after having raised the rates roughly 140% and denying coverage for doctor visits and not reducing the cost of my one prescription medication.

This year I switched to an HMO I had used over a decade ago. I walked through the sign up process while on the phone with one of their reps. We went through dozens of pages of health ailments, each one was a tick - a check mark which added up to a score. If a consumer had a high score, they would not get access to health coverage. The list of ailments was long and if I were a woman I would have been livid at some of the questions about their health. I had one point against a score of 300. --- that is part of the reform I hope to see, that people could be denied coverage, because heaven forbid, they have a health condition - which is the point of health insurance - isn't it?

The status quo is fine for those whose employers offer decent health coverage but not so fine for those whose employers offer meager or nonexistent health coverage or for those who are self-employed and have to get private coverage if they can get it at all. One of my friends is a hairdresser and because that is somehow considered a "risky" profession her health insurance rates are outrageous. The status quo also works well for those who don't have a pre-existing condition.