As legend has it, while being arrested for his believes (based upon evidence) that the Sun, rather than the Earth, was the center of the universe; Nicholas Copernicus said of his captors: “I cannot admire enough those who accepted the heliocentric (earth as the center of the universe) doctrine despite the evidence of their senses.”
The difference between this statement of 5 centuries ago and today is simply the issue to which it is applied, and the date. For Copernicus it was aimed to those who held on to the notion that the Earth was the center of the universe, today the same could be applied to the notion that government ownership, specifically health care will produce efficiency. If this past century has taught us anything, its that governments don’t do healthcare well, still despite the evidence of our senses, our congress seem committed to its treacherous course.
Based upon the evidence of your own senses, what remains true, self-evident, observable and non-controversial is that no one else but you does your healing for you, or your dying for you. Only you live with the results of medical practice, good or not. There is no outsourcing, no cost-shifting, or possible means by which you can personally enjoy the benefits of healthcare while pushing the risk of its individual consequences on to someone else. You own it.
This makes the current healthcare debate personal. It would take a delusion of universal magnitude to believe for one minute, that a greater involvement of the government into our personal healthcare is in any way be an improvement. Of course, you are free to believe that government healthcare is better, but that would be foolish and you would be wrong. What is being proposed is about a few people feeling good about doing something they hope may be good, knowing in the end, they personally can no’t bear the full cost of any decisions they have made.
There are many more simple though less glamorous reforms that would be so much more effective, but they lack the flamboyant appeal of what is being proposed today. Lowering the deduct-ability threshold for out-of-pocket healthcare expenses, interstate purchasing of healthcare insurance and personal savings accounts that roll forward and accumulate over time allowing individuals to claim higher deductibles, and in so doing enjoy lower insurance premiums. But this is about theater, not reason.
Thomas A. Coss, RN
