I have heard and read a great deal about health care reform proposed by the president and Congress, but what the bills in Congress and the Senate propose is not reform but change from our current system of providing health care to a government controlled system. I entered the health insurance industry in 1963 and have seen a great deal of changes in health care delivery systems over the years – some were good and some were bad.
The basic premise of health care is to cover the unforeseen sickness and the unforeseen accident. When abortion is considered an accident and “end of life considerations,” code for euthanasia, are considered a sickness, I think that’s sick.
When those of us who pay taxes in Maryland have to pay for people who do not have insurance, like the drug dealers who get shot on street corners and whose lives are saved by our state of the art critical care units in our hospitals, we don’t complain about the treatment, we blame the insurance companies who have to pay the higher costs of medical care.
There are some true alternatives to health care reform that are not being considered because like it or not, the intention of our government is not reform, but change to a socialistic medical delivery system.
The writer is a deacon with the Archdiocese of Baltimore and the president of ICS Insurance Brokers.