Pulling the wool over our eyes

I recently came across this video on The Queen Dee's blog. It was a video shot of former MA governor and presidential hopeful, Mitt Romney. Mitt's been barnstorming in New Hampshire to tout his Massachusetts Health Insurance Reform Bill, which he sees as a blueprint for the nation's healthcare woes. I for one would be jumping for joy over this new health care initiative, if it was actually a plan that was meant to help people.

As a whole, we basically got it in the behind by Mitt Romney without even the courtesy of a reach around. This plan forces working class people who were previously uninsured to buy "affordable" health insurance plans (a family of 4 making under $62k would pay about $600 per month) and does absolutely nothing to help defray health insurance costs for people above that income threshold.

I've met with hundreds of small business owners and health insurance is a really big deal. People that manage to get good jobs at big companies (or even better, the government) generally fare ok as far as health benefits are concerned. However, the majority of this state's population works for small business owners who either don't offer health insurance at all or who do offer health insurance but don't contribute a significant amount towards it. It's not unusual to see families paying $1200 a month towards health insurance premiums. Even for families making $100k, that's a tremendous burden.

So really, all Romney's done is forced a group of people who were getting free care via the ER to pony up for sub-par insurance and has done absolutely nothing for the rest of us. How is that ground-breaking? How is that making health insurance more affordable to the average citizen?

Here's a couple of other "ground-breaking" things that we could be doing to drive down health insurance costs:

1. When I go to the doctor for something minor (eg: ear infection), the first thing the nurse does is take my blood pressure and listen to my heart beat. They do that so they can call it an "examination" instead of a "visit" which means they can charge the insurance company more.

2. Why do I need to see an actual MD if I have an ear infection? Not to insult their intelligence but I'm pretty certain that one doesn't need to attend medical school for 10 years to identify acute illnesses such as the flu, strep throat, or ear infections. Minuteclinic is a national health clinic (not in MA yet) that specializes on diagnosing and treating routine illnesses without the cost of going to an MD. The Troll has been to one in Maryland and she reports that it was one of the least aggrevating medical experiences of her life.

3. Wal-Mart is offering $4 generic prescriptions. No, $4 is not the co-pay, it's what the drug actually costs. Enough said.

4. Right now we're paying school nurses to apply band-aids and give out medication. Why not give them the power, training, and authority to diagnose acute illnesses? Life would certainly by easier (and less expensive) for everyone if a parent didn't have to skip out of work to take their child to the doctor for something minor when the school system is already paying a registered nurse.

Maybe if Mitt Romney had actually spent his time running this state instead of passing half-assed health insurance initiaves he wouldn't sound like a complete dill weed when asked about rising health insurance costs. It's pretty obvious that not a single candidate running for president actually has anything significant to contribute to the health insurance debate, which is ridiculous since if they simply read this blog they'd be all set. Instead, I'll just sit back and wait for the baby boomers to become the straw that broke the camel's back on our nation's health care. I can hardly wait for the day that I'll have to take a plane to India in order to get some amoxicillian.