Politicians are posturing: The ‘pain’ of health care – and the search for a ‘cure’

The reality of life is that none of us is getting any younger. At some point, even the most sturdy among us will need to see the doctor. Then comes the headache of dealing with the insurance paying for our checkup, and then there are the co-pays and the out-of-pocket costs and trying to figure out the subsidies. It can all be confusing, frustrating and expensive.

The promise was that it was all supposed to become easier under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), better known as Obamacare.

Before Obamacare, each individual state oversaw the health plans of the citizens residing within it, just as it is outlined in the 9th and 10th Amendments. States like California offered various plans to choose from that people could afford, like BlueCross, Kaiser and Medi-Cal.

But then, with the advent of Obamacare, everything was stripped away from the states and placed under the auspices of the federal government, and a big reason the national debt has grown to over $38 trillion. This is what led to the “exchanges” and various platforms like Covered California which was originally a one-size-fits-all plan that did not take various possible medical scenarios into account. The plan accounts only for basic health needs – seeing the doctor for routine checkups and the like. However, it did not originally account for specialists: for mending of broken or damaged body parts, including surgery.

My life experiences have been rooted in agriculture and business, so I am not a doctor. However, the miracles that science continues to achieve in modern medicine always fascinate me. It has long been my personal belief, when it comes to medical science, that the best thing politicians and lawyers can do for doctors and scientists is to find out what they need, then stay out of their way! Ideally, a similar philosophy could be embraced when it comes to reimagining how to cover the healthcare costs of our citizens.

Specifically, I have never been able to figure out why We the People are not able to purchase healthcare coverage the same way that we buy our life and automobile insurance. We see advertisements everywhere from an array of companies competing for our business. Why can it not be the same with healthcare? Wasn’t it that way before? This would give people free-market access and choice of provider, thereby lowering costs.

Yet, some will argue the various costs would be too expensive to cover many Americans with chronic ailments. Others argue that the high costs businesses incur by providing health coverage as a fringe benefit to employees will cause many small businesses to simply stop offering healthcare coverage, thus requiring employees to find their own provider. Then there are those who say there aren’t enough health insurance providers out there to make the market competitive, thus serving to lower basic monthly healthcare costs.

However, nothing mentioned above is currently happening in Congress. Democrats want to continue for the next three years with the subsidies set forward in the ACA that are offered in programs such as Covered California. Republicans are proposing to scrap the Obamacare subsidies in favor of “health savings accounts” and placing the money that once went directly to the insurers, via the ACA, to now go to consumers instead. A third group of moderate bipartisan lawmakers in the House of Representatives is proposing extending the subsidies for two years with new income limits and anti-fraud measures. This amounts to a combination of similar plans being put forth by the two parties.

At the moment, none of the plans appear likely to pass out of Congress.

This is ridiculous! Politicians are posturing over what our healthcare should look like while their own 5-star plan remains golden. Here’s an idea: If that congressional plan is good enough for the members of Congress and their staffs, isn’t it good enough for the American people as well? As our elected representatives, should members of Congress be treated any different than the citizens they represent?

That is why as governor of California, I will champion legislation clearly stating that all members of state government, including the governor, state legislature and their staffers, will have the same healthcare insurance coverage options as the people of California. Maybe by putting a little skin into the game, the Sacramento politicians will be more honest and transparent on healthcare.

Isn’t that something we all want?