February 12, 2008 11:02 PM UTC

Health Care Compromise

• 8 Comments
• by: Joe Whitcomb

Governor Ritter announced a compromise today concerning expansion of health care coverage in Colorado. http://www.rockymountainnews.c…

I applaud the Governor for his commitment to providing coverage for all children in Colorado by 2010. The compromise itself was a bit of a disappointment to me, and hearing the Governor cite a lack of political will to find the needed funding as a reason for the compromise only served to remind me how important it is to send the Legislture new people with the will to get the job done for the people of Colorado.

I was not at all surprised to read that Shawn Mitchell was one of the people standing in the way of change, and that he opposes affordable, quality care for kids. Going down the full list of possible bad arguments and logical fallicies, Mitchell was proud to explain why he opposes expanding health coverage to Colorado children.

He actually went so far as to make the hillarious claim that expanding access to care for children, “will reduce access to care.”

The argument that expanded health insurance coverage reduces access is wrong on many levels, but one critical problem with the argument is that the question is not access, it’s access to what.  Here is a simple fact, sick people go to doctors, one way or another.  And you know what? That’s a good thing.  Under the current system, uninsured and underinsured sick and injured people go to emergency rooms for their coverage, often after an illness or injury has become chronic, WHEN IT IS THE MOST EXPENSIVE POSSIBLE.  

Insured people, like Senator Mitchell and his family make appointments with doctors before an illness is chronic and receive treatment.  They also schedule physicals and lab tests to detect RISK FACTORS like high blood pressure, respitory abnormalities, enlarged prostates and the list goes on and on.  Look (I’m taking a deep breath now) this is not economics, this is physics.  Nothing, and I mean nothing, will be cheaper to fix in the future than it is right now.  Suggesting otherwise is not just unwise, it is irresponsible.  It is akin to passing the buck to future generations of lawmakers and citizens.

I venture to guess that none of you, having gone into your basement and discovering a leaking pipe, would head the advice of a plumber that told you “Well it will be expensive to fix now, but if you wait until the pipe bursts all together, it wil be much cheaper.”  Hopefully you would throw that plumber out on his/her ear.

We have to start asking ourselves better questions.  Questions like, who do we think is paying for the inefficient and largely disfunctional system now, if not taxpayers? I promise you your insurance company has never worried about passing the costs of the unisured onto you. You are already paying those costs. It is time we asked what the best and most responsible way of handling those costs, and it is about time we had representation with the political will to get the job done.

I hope you will join me in asking the hard questions and finding the sound answers. You can visit my website at http://www.electjoewhitcomb.com.