Drowning in the Big Pool

President Obama, as many people know, was on Letterman last night. Now, I know - it's a comedy oriented talk show, it wasn't a policy visit, it was a "I'm a good guy, like me" appearance. And he did pretty well, I think. Except for one big mistake that he has repeated over and over about mandatory private health insurance.

Obama says that all the self employed and otherwise uninsurable people seeking private insurance will form a big pool that will be able to get the same kind of rates as big employer groups. Well, they could have done that all along. What was stopping them? The same thing that will be stopping them when coverage is mandatory.

In order for a group to negotiate rates, there has to be a NEGOTIATOR (a person who does the bargaining) and they have to make a decision to go with the best deal. AT&T doesn't just say "look, insurance industry, we have hundreds of thousands of employees, if you want a taste of them you've got to give each one a good deal." No, they have som HR person who uses the VOLUME of the group as leverage to get ONE vendor.

The idea that since all of us as individuals must be insured and can pick any policy we want, insurance companies will somehow be pressured to lower their rates to get our business is ludicrous. I wish our otherwise very intelligent president would realize this.

So Let Me Get This Straight...

So here I am, a middle-class, middle-aged, reliably democratic voter who can't get health insurance because I am self employed and saddled with pre-exisiting conditions. And I'm still probably better off than most of the 47-50 million other uninsured Americans. However you look at it, there is a real healthcare crisis in this country and something has to be done. In the free-market Republican philosophy, as long as the insurance companies continue to thrive and be profitable, all is well - the market will take care of the rest. It will take care of me as soon as I have the heart attack that my pre-existing conditions predict isn't far off, after which I'll no longer be a drain on the system. And while that may be good for a capitalist society as a whole, it isn't the preferred result for me personally. Which is a big reason that I pushed so hard for the Democrats in 2008.

So how is the Democratic head of the Democratically controlled Senate with a Democratic majority in both houses and a Democratic administration going to help me?

By mandating that I buy private insurance from a for-profit insurance company that currently won't even sell me a policy, or face what I gather is about a $4,000 fine. And whether I pay that fine or not, if I get sick or injured I'll still be without healthcare. Oh, wait, there's some wording in Baucus's bill to the effect that the cost of my policy can't be "exorbitant." Look it up, it's an interesting word.

I feel so much better now.