Al's Opinions

Looking at the front-runners in the present Presidential race, I predict the following nominees:

For the Republicans, Mitt Romney

For the Democrats, Hilary Clinton

Although at present Romney seems to be in trouble with the Religious Conservative wing of the Republican Party, he has a year to convince them that, as a Mormon, he follows the teachings of the Church with regard to same-sex marriage and abortion. The Latter Day Saints Church is very conservative with regard to such things. It's also conservative with regard to government programs of assistance to the poor, the aged, and oppressed minorities. These matters should be settled through non-governmental organizations, like the LDS Church. That Church provides generously for Mormons who are out of work by providing jobs and food for them and their families. These teachings are very appealing to other religious conservatives. Romney will have them eating out of his hand by the end of the year.

I predict the Democratic Nomination to go to Clinton. She has the best organization. She is the best known. Her principal opponent, Barack Obama, is a Negro. Many Americans have a secret reluctance to vote for a Negro as our nation's leader. Clinton has a similar problem because she is a woman.

Romney will be our next President.

Why am I pessimistic? If we Americans could elect a Democrat, there would be a chance for a worth-while reform of our broken medical care system. With Romney, or any Republican, the only thing that won't be vetoed is a scheme similar to the one in Massachusetts, in which the insurance companies are still running things and putting profit ahead of high quality health care, as they must, because their stockholders will demand it.

Romney will convince the majority of Americans who oppose our war in Iraq that he will bring it to an end, just as Richard Nixon ended the war in Viet Nam. Romney may even have a "secret plan" for ending the war. The Democrats will have been unable to end or even slow down the war by election day next year. In fact, we may even be at war with Iran by then. Romney will have a secret plan for ending that one, too. The Republicans will be respected again and Romney will have a cooperative Congress.

I hope I'm wrong.

Labels: Barack Obama, Ending the War, Health insurance crisis, Hilary Clinton, Massachusetts plan for universal health care, Mitt Romney

According to some politicians, the crisis in our health care system due to persons without health insurance flooding hospital emergency rooms for health care is due to all the illegal immigrants we have in the country. These illegal immigrants don't have health insurance. They don't pay taxes that would support the public schools, yet our schools are flooded with their children. And so it goes. Yada, yada, yada.

Today the Los Angeles Times has a story about well-to-do professional workers who are self-employed. Two decades ago these professionals obtained health insurance at group rates through their professional associations. Today most of these group plans have been terminated. You can read the story here.

Insurers have been terminating these group plans in recent years because of several effects, including:

1. Medical costs have been increasing rapidly.
   
2. Young professionals have been buying individual insurance at rates less than the group rates offered by the professional associations.
   
3. As a result, the cost of insuring the remaining older professionals has increased rapidly.

In our private enterprise system, insurance companies are forced to operate to maximize their profit. The result is that they look for young, healthy individuals to insure and either cast off the older, more expensive individuals or charge very high premiums to insure them.

Many of you won’t agree with my conclusion, which is that we need a complete change in the way Americans obtain health insurance. Leaving matters to the marketplace, as we are now doing, guarantees that only the very healthiest individuals can obtain health insurance at prices they can afford. To me that’s just not fair and it’s not right. Access to good medical care should be available to all, not just the healthy young and the very rich. We need an insurance system that provides affordable health insurance to everyone and which everyone has. One means of accomplishing this goal is the single-payer plan. Canada uses such a plan. Legislation to establish such a plan for California is in work in the State Legislature, even though a bill to establish single-payer was vetoed last year by Governor Schwarzenegger.

The political problem with single-payer is that it removes private insurers from the lucrative health insurance business. These private insurers have a lot of political influence, spelled M.O.N.E.Y. The single-payer bill was adopted by the Legislature last year. It can be adopted again. We must persuade the Governor to sign the bill. Any suggestions on how to do so will be welcome.

Labels: effect of illegal immigrants, Health insurance crisis, insurance for self-employed professionals, single-payer