Living with MCL

One of my passions, at least since my diagnosis, has been with health care reform.

Fortunately, the majority of the population and most candidates recognize this is an important issue, maybe even ahead of the Iraq war, and it is gaining major prominence in California, with Governor Schwarzenegger’s revised proposal for health care reform.

I applaud the governor for his effort in bring this issue to the forefront, but his new proposal has some issues, the two biggest of which are the mandate that everyone purchase health insurance, and secondly continuing to place the burden for health care on the backs of employers.

I don’t think either of those two proposals provide any meaningful reform, but they do provide the fodder, for those with a vested interest in the status quo, to successfully fight the proposal.

In that regard, I have written the following letter to Governor Schwarzenegger, outlining my suggestions for improving his proposal, which I believe can gain greater universal acceptance.

If we all band together and voice are concerns and desires, we can achieve real and meaningful reform.

There is no doubt that health care reform is a necessity for the country as well as for California, and your proposal is a step in the right direction, but falls short of providing real health care reform.

First off, requiring everyone to purchase health insurance is a non starter, as well as being unenforceable. We can’t even enforce the law requiring automobile owners and drivers to purchase auto insurance, how do you expect to enforce the requirement that everyone purchase health insurance?

If you’re going to remove the mandate that health care providers treat those without insurance, or the ability to pay, then that might work, but unfortunately that is a federal mandate, so I doubt that is feasible.

Secondly, requiring employers to provide health insurance or pay a tax, is also a non starter. That is exactly the policy we need to be getting away from, and the reason CA businesses and businesses throughout the US are non competitive in the global economy.

We have to get the burden of health care off employers altogether.

The best way to solve both those issues, and ensure that everyone contributes to the maintenance of our health care infrastructure, is to make everyone pay their fair share through a tax on consumption. That way, those that have the most money, and can afford the most, will pay the most.

This can be done in a number of ways, e.g.

1) A small percentage increase in the sales tax.
2) A increase in the gasoline tax. Not only will this provide funds for health care, but will help the environment as well, by encouraging everyone to buy more efficient automobiles.

Plus I am sure there are a number of other effective means of equitably raising taxes to fund a program everyone uses.

And just think what this will do for the business environment in California, if CA businesses no longer have to foot the bill for health insurance. Businesses will be flocking to California to produce their products, which will increase business tax revenues, providing additional funds to provide health care to everyone.

This revenue can then be used to fund the minimum level of care everyone needs, just as Medicare does for the elderly.

This will have the added benefit of relieving the burden from emergency rooms to provide free care (patients will now be able to seek care in doctors office since they will have insurance), and still leave plenty of opportunity for the health insurance industry to provide supplemental insurance to cover other expenses.

At the very least it will permit funding that unfunded mandate.

Today, I found myself reading excerpts from an interview between Lance Armstrong and Darren Rovell, and then listening to that same interview, to be sure my ears weren’t deceiving me.

It looks like Nike is going to launch a new line of Livestrong Apparel, and donate 100% of the proceeds to fund cancer research.

That is just unheard of in the corporate world. I can’t imagine another company doing that. [Even a health insurance company.]

The only comment that seems appropriate now is, I know what brand of running shoes, running shorts, or any other piece of sports apparel, I’ll be buying from now on.

I blogged yesterday, on my other blog, about what I believe to be an irrational fear of “socialized medicine”.

Without going into the particulars of my thoughts on the topic, (you can read it for yourself if you’re interested), I did get a comment from one of my loyal readers, who blogs in support of the health insurance industry, suggesting I am bitter about my situation, and that is why I feel the way I do about the current state of US health care.

Have I ever suggested to anyone that I am bitter about my situation?

Certainly, I’m not happy with the fact I have mantle cell lymphoma, but neither am I bitter about it.

People get sick all the time, and there is no reason to believe I, or anyone else, should be entitled to some special dispensation not to get sick. Getting sick is part of life. Everyone will get sick sometime in their life, and we all have to deal with it as best we can.

In some regards I actually feel it was of benefit, and helped put a different perspective on life, which is one of the reasons I started this blog.

What I am bitter about is a health care system that treats health care like a commodity distributed according to the ability to pay, rather then according to need.

What I’m bitter about is a health care system that discriminates against the most vulnerable in society, by burdening them with undue costs and pressures, with no regard to the consequences to society, and then rationalizing that it was their fault for getting sick, and/or not planning well.

If that makes me appear bitter about my situation, or that I’m feeling sorry for myself, then so be it. I just don’t see it that way.

I only wish others could see the world as I see it. I think it would be a better place.

That’s how many miles I put on my bike last month.

Now while you may not consider that of any particular relevance, I sure view it as a milestone.

I have not put on that many miles in one month, since I started keeping track of my mileage in ‘02, and I doubt I’ve ever put on that many miles in a single month since I started riding a bike competitively in ‘82.

And to make that sound even more monumental, I climbed over 17,500 feet, and burned 50,000 calories (almost 15 pounds) in the process.

I think I’d better go rest now!