Making sense of the Craziness

I've decided to move my political thoughts from Facebook to this blog. I figure this way my "Facebook Friends" won't have to be subjected to my sometimes silly political ramblings ;).

Anyways, as I look back on the last year it is interesting to see how much our world has changed. The hope that came with Obama is fading and reality has stepped in. Don't get me wrong I do think we are better off now then we were a year ago. Rather than facing a "Depression" we're facing a recession and who knows how long it is going to last. The health care debate became just silly and I'm amazed at the fact that people love paying high deductables and going bankrupt with the current system and are so afraid of "the government being involved". Well If I had to chose between the government (who has oversight from the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the government) or the insurance companies who have no current oversight - I'll take the government 7 days a week and twice on Saturday.

In the end it looks like reform is going to pass and while it's not the "perfect" bill, it's a great improvement on the status quo. I hope two things end up in the final bill:

#1: Stripping the insurance companies of the exemption they get from anti-trust laws that all other private companies are subject to. This has allowed insurance companies to fix prices and dominate the market (Like in North Dakota where over 90% of the population who has insurance gets it through Blue Cross/Blue Shield). With the anti-trust exemption revoked, it will lead the way for new companies to enter the market which will increase competition and most likely drive down prices. If you don't believe that, look at other areas of our economy that benefit from anti-trust laws. For example, small businesses, are able to thrive in this country because these laws protect them from being muscled out by larger corporations. And this then creates more options in the market place which, in turn, drives down costs as folks compete for business. This can really help the current system.

#2: Make the insurance exchanges run and regulated by the Federal Gov't and not the state Gov't. The reason this would help is that while some states will come down hard on regulations others will not. Federal regulations would be instituted across the country and no state would be exempt. Plus, this saves money on the state levels because they don't have to bear the burden and cost of running/regulating these exchanges.


My hope is that congress does right on this for the people.

That's all for now, more to follow later.

-Matt