One of the first things I noticed when I started working in the U.S. was how expensive health insurance was. Back in the Philippines, I was enjoying premium benefits by just being my father's dependent on his company insurance. I get to have an executive physical exam with no out-of-pocket which would cost me more than a $300 on my current U.S. insurance. I actually have my annual physical exam in the Philippines when I visit and try to include all my dental work as well.This is because it is a fact that the health care system in the Philippines is affordable, and the doctors and nurses are well-trained.

This makes me wonder why healthcare in an industrialized and wealthy nation such as the U.S. could be so expensive? I agree that reforms should be made and that the Obama admnistration is taking the first steps in that direction. Now there still is a lot to be said and debated on the proposed reform, but we should not lose sight of the fact that this is for the greater good. As a public good, health care should be managed for social needs and not for short-term profit. It is quite surprising that a lot of people seem to be missing this idea, especially on the debate on public option. I was actually reading a comment in one of the related articles that goes: 

[This was in response to another reader's comment on how much cheaper and better New Zealands's health care system was when she was working there] "You're free to go back to New Zealand, Canada or any number of other socialist countries out there. That's not how we do it here. The history of this country exhibits the greatest levels of personal liberty ever seen in any form of government. It's real simple. Government control eliminates personal liberty. You see it in France. You saw it in communist Russia or Cuba. You see it in China. You see it everywhere because any government, by nature, will try to grow itself and grow its control. That is a natural force. If you read the constitution of this country, you will see the founders went to great lengths to try to inhibit these forces."

I am not entirely sure how efficient and low-cost health care equate to loss of personal liberty, but I see these sentiments echoed a bit in different online threads and forums. This also includes great concern on how illegal immigrants will still be receiving basic health care as well. I say that the latter would be more of an issue of enforcing immigration laws. As for the above comment, comparing France, the UK, Germany etc. to communist Russia or China is nonsense. The French have the exact same freedom of speech, religion etc. and equality under the law that the U.S. does. They also have a medical system that makes them quite a bit more healthy and they pay a LOT less for it. So why can't the U.S. have that?

There seems to be a lot of myths and misconceptions surrounding the reform that I think would be solved by educating citizens on what is included in the proposed changes. The fact remains that there is an immediate need for it. If we want to fix our healthcare system then look no further than the word "healthcare" itself because the secret is right there. Care. All I'm saying is that just because things seem to be working fine for us does not mean we should not care enough to make it better. After all it's not called Healthbusiness it is Healthcare.

Do you care enough to let me know what your concerns are with the reforms Obama is proposing? Do you support it? Why and why not?

Related Articles

Analysis-Support for Obama's healthcare plans fragile, Reuters

'Public Option' and its role in health-care debate, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Healthcare reform, Wikipedia

U.K. Hits Back at U.S. Health Reform 'Untruths', FOX News

Health Care Reform in 10 Minutes, mirawebdesign.com

Where Bush missed, Obama has a shot, Los Angeles Times