Wishing for some serious healthcare reform, but may not happen
I’m wishing for some serious healthcare reform, based on President Obama’s good intentions during the campaign, but that may not happen, at least for some time. I suspect getting something done about jobs and the economy will outweigh healthcare reforms for the near term.
It doesn’t take any special insight to see that healthcare services and costs both have gone wild in America. I personally have no health insurance because until this Internet work I do takes off and brings in far more than it does currently, my wife and I simply cannot afford health insurance for me. (She got a terrific retirement buyout some years ago that included health insurance we CAN afford.)
But, healthcare is such a growth industry with so many vested interests, governmental and private sector, that it’s hard to see how to solve many issues. I will say that healthcare jobs seem to be a strong job sector pretty much always, recession or not. At least there are always jobs listed in our area for medical techs, nurses, and even doctors of all sorts. So that’s certainly a good thing — and it makes me wish I’d thought seriously about becoming a doctor those many, many years ago when I could have/should have.
I don’t really see a way healthcare reform can be done easily. I am admittedly too ignorant about all that would be involved, but it seems to me that Medicare (not Medicaid) has worked pretty well in America for senior citizens. Why couldn’t some part of healthcare reforms include expanding Medicare for more (even all?) age groups? Certainly worth considering.
It really seems to me — probably an oversimplification — that the world’s still arguably “richest” or “greatest” industrialized nation should be able to provide good, affordable healthcare for all who live here. Shouldn’t it?