Healthcare Reform Upheld by the Supreme Court

This is a hotbed issue that needs a lot more understanding than is being pushed by the media and political groups.

Here's my take on the ruling:

It's interesting. Five of the judges interpreted the individual mandate as a "tax" which is the only constitutional rational for upholding the law. The legislative branch could have mitigated this issue if they would have instituted the individual mandate as a tax in the first place, but the negative fallout from creating a new "tax" would have effectively been political suicide for the proponents of the law. I personally think that the law as it is written is literally unconstitutional, but its spirit IS certainly constitutional. Tough job for the Supreme Court to view the law through the scope of the political landscape and come to a decision based on the "directive" of the law as opposed to the "nuanced language". Of course, this creates an ambiguity of interpretation on the judicial side. I'm abivalent on the decision because there's negative fallout either way.

Regardless, the healthcare issue needs to result in greater awareness of the consumer. Medical providers cannot simply charge whatever they want for services, or perform unnecessary services in order to create more revenue. Insurance companies cannot shortchange medical providers in order to keep rates low. Individuals cannot missuse the insurance companies and go to a medical provider everytime they or their children get a sniffle. The more aware the consumer becomes, the better the system will become. The dollars spent on medical services need to be real and palpable to the consumer in a marketplace where medical services are NOT provided by the federal government, as they are in many other countries around the world.

The US health services systems are generally considered to the be the best in the world. There is cost associated with that. It's necessary for the people of this nation to understand that cost. The perception that going to the doctor for care should be "free" is poisoning the free market system within which the healthcare services industry operates. If healthcare were provided as a function of government and paid for with tax dollars as is Medicare for our senior citizens, then the perception that healthcare is "free" would be acceptable and we'd all have to live with a decline in the quality of basic services as has been evidenced by the state of healthcare in countries like England, France and Canada, where a person might have to wait a week for a broken bone to be set in a cast.

Consumer education is key. If the consumer is aware of the dollars being spent, then the consumer can positively affect the financial situation for himself. This is most easily demonstrated when the doctor asks: "Do you have good insurance?" before writing a prescription. If the answer is "Yes", then the prescription is for a brand name drug that a pharmacuetical company is pushing with gifts to the doctor's office. If the answer is "No", then the presciption is for a generic drug that will likely cost less than $5 as the local grocery pharmacy. The difference is that the insurance company picks up the tab on the expensive drug, thus necessitating the rise of insurance premiums and we continue the cycle of rising costs.

The real solution to the problem: know the value of your medical service! Price shop. Be an educated consumer and start thinking about healthcare in the same way you think about other necessary expenses.