A Case Against the “Government Plan”

I know you mean well, but you are not looking at the bigger picture here.

First off you are confusing health insurance with health care, the "health care system in the USA is the best in the world ( all of the top twenty four hospitals in the world are in the USA")

The cost of health care will rise should a government run health insurance system be instituted;

Here is why:

 
Your doctor, who normally charges say 100 dollars for an office visit, under the current situation makes only about 41 dollars after expenses.  Now the government steps in ( as it does with Medicaid and Medicare right now ) mandates these doctors have to take government plan patients, and says we are only going to pay 40 dollars because that is what we feel its worth for that visit (this happens right now). The doctors expenses are still 59 dollars per visit, so seeing a government patient is effectively the equivalent of giving each person who comes into the office under the government plan a 20 dollar bill. 

Right now doctors and hospitals simply increase the fees on the people who have non-government health insurance so they can break even on the patients who have government health insurance; Hospitals also charge insurance companies for the cost of the people who have "charity care" ( did you ever wonder why is costs 5 dollars for an aspirin? )

 
So the "patient" who doesn't have government health insurance has to pay 119 dollars for their visit or should I say the insurance company has to pay for the visit.

As more and more people are put on the government plan, the doctor charges more and more to the people who pay for their insurance so they can break even.

The insurance company who also need to show a profit as well; who by the way are eating the cost of the government plan right NOW; raises  health insurance costs on the people/companies who pay them to cover their costs.

Your employer who currently pays a good portion of your health insurance sees more and more increases in health insurance costs for their employees. Right now they are getting a tax deduction to help them defray that cost. 

The government decides that they will no longer allow a tax deduction to help pay for the cost of private health insurance, and why should they; they offer a plan, secondly the government decides (as suggested by the Obama admin ) to tax the people getting private health insurance to cover the costs of the government  plan.

Now the people receiving private health insurance are paying for the government plan through income taxes on their private insurance, and the companies no longer get an incentive to provide you with insurance also to pay for the government plan.

They ( the employers ) have to make a decision, do I continue to provide health insurance for my employees and increase the cost of my goods, so I can make a profit? or do I eliminate the health insurance benefit to my employees? They are all good loyal employees but the cost of providing quality health care is killing my profits, I no longer get a tax incentive to provide it, and my employees are taxed, besides my share holders are screaming “make a profit”.

Wait a minute, the government provides health insurance (government option) and  all I have to do for my employees to have health insurance is to stop providing it and pay a small "fine" each quarter and they get health insurance government provided, it may not be as good as the one I provided, but they get the insurance.

Do you see how this is a slippery slope, more patients go on the govt plan, the higher premiums go, the higher the premiums are, the more companies force people into getting the government plan. It goes on and on and on.... Finally when the doctors government insurance patients outnumber the ones with private insurance, doctors who spend small fortunes for their education get out of the business and new doctors are reluctant to get into the field because the money isn't worth doing it, especially when you don't even make enough money to cover the cost of schooling.

 
Thus; no more competition and the government plan is the only one available, this won't happen over night, but it will happen.

We got a hint of that cause and effect when this administration hinted about paying the educational bills of recent graduates.

Now don't get me wrong; you will get some people who will get into the health care industry just because they are humanitarians, and don't care about the money. But a good portion of the good doctors will either get out of the business, or move to a country that will allow them to make money. Like Taiwan which by the way has the 25th best hospital in the world, and the cost of living is cheaper.

Don't trust this analogy... research Massachusetts Universal health system, see for yourself how that system is working for the people of Massachusetts.

The other thing you probably don't realize is that the numbers Obama quoted in his "health care infomercial" or announced in his speech are all crap. As I already stated in my reply to Senator Menendez’s Blog on Huffington Post

You are being lead down a path that you appear to be advocating based on half truths and outright lies.

Now do you understand that having a government plan isn't going to solve the rising cost of health care, nor is it going to "promote" competition.

I don't want you to trust my analogy; do the research, find this information out for yourself.