Political Comment

I'm not going to pretend that, as I've been enjoying my summer vacation, I've spent a lot of time following the ongoing debate about the proposed Health Care bill. To the degree that I have heard some discussion on the topic, I have to say that its critics are betraying a significant lack of understanding of one of the key elements of the push for reform. No one, as some of them seem to imply, is suggesting that the quality of health care in this country (that is, the proficiency of our doctors, the quality of technology in our hospitals, etc.) is the real problem. The problems are access and waste, both of which are exacerbated by private insurers by their refusal to cover "pre-existing" conditions (often uncovered only long after the customer began paying premiums) and the bureaucracy they employ to tell their customers "no." I have insurance, but when I travel, I'm confronted with an incredible headache of trying to re-fill my prescriptions because my insurance company won't authorize my purchasing more than a month's supply at a time. This necessitates numerous phone-calls between me and my doctor's office, them and the pharmacy, and I suspect between the pharmacy and the insurance company. That adds up to a lot of man-hours of wasted time, when all they need to let me do is get sufficient pills before I leave to last me through my trip. Mine is ultimately a tiny problem in the grand scheme of things, but I can't help but think it's indicative of systemic inefficiency made many times worse by the virtual monopolies enjoyed by private insurers in many instances. Those who are trying to stall the reform (Republicans and Democrats alike) are doing all of us a disservice by pretending that this isn't a big problem, and should stop taking their lead from the insurance industry.