QUESTION: Is government regulation in health care infeasible?
The Tea Party members, discontent with the schemes of big government, use the National Weather Service to coordinate the perfect afternoon to express their deep-seated concerns. They drop their children off at the publically funded school and proceed to drive on the finely paved roads (serviced by the Department of Transportation) to their rallies so they can decry the abhorrent evil known as socialized health care all while sipping their tea that has been safety approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The Tea Partiers that couldn’t go get a chance to view their friends on TV, courtesy of the federally owned airwaves.
For all the fear mongering about the government stepping in to reform health care services, people seem to forget how our essential amenities for daily life are already regulated. Electricity, water, transportation, food and many other agencies are under some form of government regulation. The government’s oversight has for the most part made life more convenient and safer to the average American.
So given that the government already regulates many services, should the onus of health care be upon them? It’s about time for Uncle Sam to clean up his house.
Critics argue that the government cannot out-compete the private sector’s efficiency in providing services. I can understand these people’s reluctance to trust the government since since there have been incidences of misappropriation of funds, but the abysmal status quo of health care warrants the federal involvement to step in.
According to the 2008 report of the United States Census Bureau, roughly 46.3 million people did not have health insurance. This is a complete and utter shame to our nation in comparison to the rest of the industrialized nations. Leaving the fate of health care to the private sector alone throws millions of Americans to the wolves.
Part of the problem is the predatory nature of insurance companies that profit when they can withhold the very service that they are supposed to provide. Insurance firms will deny coverage to people that have higher chances of getting expensive operations. That’s savvy business.
Thankfully, some progress has been made with the recent bill passing to prevent insurance companies from denying insurance for pre-existing conditions, but more federal intervention for health care is needed to alleviate the staggering amount of uninsured people. The government needs to step in and create a special federal agency for a public health care option in the same vein as they have regulated other agencies before.
Public health care is not a slippery slope for the United States to become a failed socialist welfare state experiment. Health care reform is not a charity handout, just as roads, schools and libraries are not government charity. But we cannot progress as a nation, until we learn to take care of our own people.
Osman was scared of death panels pulling the plug when he was getting his appendix removed, but thankfully he waived his health insurance to cover the costs. Reach him at msalim1@asu.edu
