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Are Active Rainers Looking at Healthcare through the Wrong End of the Lens?

By Kate Bourland

Services for Real Estate Pros with Marketing with Kate

September 24, 2009 07:40 PM

As I watch the health-care issue rage on, I can't help but notice the political divide that this issue has caused. Perhaps it's just because I'm getting older, but it seems that the chasm between Liberals and Conservatives has never been greater. I'm thinking that too many Americans are looking at the health-care issue through a distorted lens.

I have to wonder if the challenge for many Active Rainer's, is that our livelihood is based on the perceived success of capitalism, free markets and republican values. We understand that when capitalism is working as it should, that our personal financial outlook improves. real estate appreciates and the American Dream of home ownership is realized more frequently.

Even with that understanding, I find it odd that more of us are not arguing in favor a public option or a single payer health care system. As a profession we stand to benefit greatly from ease of access to health-care. Most of us are 1099ed and independent contractors making health-care more expensive for us. As a profession,, the ease of access to group plans is narrow, premiums are higher and coverage is lower. Oddly, we support the values of big business, even though we ourselves are small businesses.

The trickle down theory so permeates our consciousness that we can't step away from lens long enough to realize that it's not in focus.

The health-care plans coming out of Congress benefit big business at the expense of small business and individuals. That's not OK.

I argue that a single payer system or public option will help us as individuals and help our businesses. If Americans are able to spend less on health-care, that means they have more to spend on housing! If health-care takes up a smaller percentage of gross income, disposable income increases, DTI ratios decrease and the American consumer will feel richer. When Americans feel richer, they are more likely to get off the fence and move towards home ownership.

As I'm writing this, I can hear the dissenters argue about increased taxes digging into the disposable income I mention above. To that I say, what is the one remaining tax shelter that benefits all Americans?

You guessed it, it's home ownership!

I think that this is an instance where "socialism" in one industry promotes capitalism in another. There is a certain synergy that exists when you turn the lens around and focus it differently.

I am Kate Bourland. I help my clients get out of debt, get loan modifications and establish a debt free lifestyle. We Guarantee our Loan Modifications. You can reach me at 530-419-3967.

http://www.katebourland.com

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Eric Villaverde

DoubleTree Home Inspection Services L.L.C. - Phoenix, AZ

Thanks for sharing another interesting post with us tonight. Have a great weekend.

Sep 24, 2009 07:46 PM

Sasha Miletic - Windsor Real Estate

RE/MAX Preferred Realty Ltd. - Windsor, ON

Hi Kate, Good post. Thanks for shring.

Best - Sash

Sep 24, 2009 08:23 PM

Jim Hale

ACTIONAGENTS.NET - Eugene, OR

Eugene Oregon's Best Home Search Website

There are a lot of changes to health care that would be beneficial. But a public option is not necessary.

Health insurance needs to become an individual insurance item like car insurance. Why should employers be paying for policies. If the whole country was on individual policies, individual policies would not be so expensive.

No where in the congressional proposals (certainly not in the President's vague rhetoric) is there anything believable that would decrease the cost of health.

We need more doctors, more nurses and more hospitals. We need many insurance options vying to sell individual policies.

Sep 24, 2009 09:01 PM

Vanna Siackhasone

Real Estate Brokers of Alaska 907-720-4663 - Anchorage, AK

Anchorage Real Estate 907-720-4663

I think a public option could have a very positive effect on the lives of many Americans. I also agree with Jim, however I don't understand how insurance would be more affordable if it was purchased separately and individually. Right now, employers are offsetting a lot of the insurance costs for their employees. If insurance was sold as car insurance is being sold now, all that cost would be transferred to the insured.

Sep 24, 2009 09:33 PM

David James

ReMax Real Estate Services Columbia South Carolina - Columbia, SC

You can't be serious. You are saying that getting the government involved is going to lower health care costs? Have you mailed a letter lately? Public option is a con to drive private insurers out of business and when we are left with only the government- look out! Health care by Amtrack! As PJ O'Rouke said, "If you think health care is expensive now, wait until it's free!"

Sep 24, 2009 09:53 PM

Hugh Krone

Weichert Referral Associates - Hamburg, NJ

Realtor, Sussex County NJ

Kate, I think alot of us can look past what may be better for us at present and see the bigger picture of what will be ebest for our children and grand children and country as a whole. And that can never be more control by a govt that has been corrupt for generations and shows no shift coming

Sep 25, 2009 12:02 AM

Bonnie Vaughan

Scranton, PA

CNE SFR - Buyers/Sellers - Lackawanna & Surroundin

The government has failed at everything it has run. That includes health care they currently run which is Medicare and Medicaid. Ask our American Indians how well the government delivers services to them.

The government cannot even run itself efficiently. Fix health care - keep the government out.

By the way Kate, the Baucus bill which is the Bill being amended and drafted provides that premiums will be based in part on age. As you age your premium goes up. 60 year olds and up will be charged 5X's more than a 20 year old.

So the older you get the harder you will have to work to pay for your health care. Sure you will be able to get it but can you afford it? Fail to get it and you will be fined.

Sep 25, 2009 01:21 AM

Kathy Clulow

Uxbridge, ON

Trusted For Experience - Respected For Results

Here in Ontario we have OHIP (Govt Operated) and private insurance for things not covered by OHIP. While not perfect by any means it does provide some coverage for all. It is easier to be a productive contributing member of society if you are healthy.

Sep 25, 2009 01:28 AM

Dianne Bartlett

Brightside Realty, LLC - Austin, TX

It's a tough issue. I guess I'm a socialist - I want true government health care like they have in other countries.

Sep 25, 2009 02:53 AM

Terry Haugen STAGE it RIGHT! 321-956-2495

Stage it Right! - Melbourne, FL

Kate, only the Baucus bill so far is a benefit to the health care industry. Given there are 5 proposed bills, which will eventually become one, we do need to wait and see. But I'm with Dianne above on the issue.

Sep 25, 2009 07:28 AM

Dinah Lee Griffey

Windermere Peninsula Properties - Allyn, WA

Managing Broker Windermere Peninsula Properties

I think we first need to reduce costs. There are a lot of areas where we could improve the current system. There is also no free lunch. We will be paying for it in some form or another. Being on a boarder state I frequenly sell property to Canadians who love their system for the simple stuff, but when they have a major medical issue, and lets face it no one is gonna get out of this alive, they prefer to come to the states. We are more progressive and they have aeasier time being seen by a doctor. We need to look a lot of areas before we can make good choices. I dont think this is an easy fix.-Dinah Lee

Sep 25, 2009 04:47 PM

Kate Bourland

Marketing with Kate - Redding, CA

Onlilne Marketing Mobile Marketing

Hey Guys, sorry it took so long to follow up on your comments - took a day off and got to go camping.

Jim, I agree that we need competition and the availabilty of individual plans. In my mind that is exactly why we need a public option - for competition. Ir's interesting to note that Walmart is behind the public option - why? Because a public option lowers the cost of doing business and would increase profits. It would also take pressure off of them to provide insurance to its many uninsured workers. Why don't people understand the word "option" - an option is a choice. A public choice would force for-profit companies to be more responsible.

Vanna, your comment brings out the exact point that I'm trying to make. Right now, if you are employed by a company large enough to offer health insurance you have access to "affordable" health coverage. If you are an independent contractor your health care costs sky-rocket. Insurance companies and especially HMO's were developed to lower healthcare costs. That didn't happen - it simply shifted the profit from the doctors providing the care to the insurance companies. The insurance companies don't provide health care in any way shape or form. All they do is process payments. They charge us 30% for paying processing those payments AND they find ways to not pay for the services that are rendered. Right now we have "cash" prices and insurance prices. The amounts billed to insurance companies are always significantly higher than those billed to cash clients. Insurance companies have increased the cost of healthcare simply because doctors and hospitals have to inflate prices to make a living. It's nutty! Take away inflated prices, you lower the cost of healthcare.

Sep 26, 2009 05:27 PM

Kate Bourland

Marketing with Kate - Redding, CA

Onlilne Marketing Mobile Marketing

David, it's this kind of alarmist sentiment that is clouding the issue. The post office as we know it is a hybrid, but it's a privatly held company. It's a result of the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 and privatization has contributed to the USPS decline! While the USPS is granted certain privileges that no similar private firm gets and some aspects of its management are quasi-governmental (e.g. the Postmaster General is a political appointee), the USPS must pay for it's operations from postage and sales of other products. In fact the USPS didn't start having problems until it became the hybrid that it is today. The post office example is not a valid compairson in the health care argument. That said, the post office started out as government agency and it was the government that built the infrastructure that delivers a letter to every house in america for 47 cents. Show me a private company that can build that kind of infrastructre and deliver a letter for 47 cents - it can't be done.

The "public option" health care should be a bonifide government agency that provides true competition to the greed of privately held insurance agencies.

Sep 26, 2009 05:57 PM

Kate Bourland

Marketing with Kate - Redding, CA

Onlilne Marketing Mobile Marketing

Hugh, don't misunderstand me, I'm not arguing for the government to take over healthcare. I'm arguing for a solution that benefits both consumrers and business. Right now our system hurts business and individuals. The only profitable ones here are private insurance companies. I think that the corruption is on the corporation side on this issue. No doubt our politicians lack the vision and intellegence of our founding fathers and corruption abounds, but again too many people are clouding the issue. The private sector has contributed to the corruption through lobbiests at the expense of you and I. Agin, a public option is a choice - people can still choose private insurance companies but if the public option provides better service at a lower cost by forcing private insurance companies tochange the way they do business.

Sep 27, 2009 01:39 AM

Kate Bourland

Marketing with Kate - Redding, CA

Onlilne Marketing Mobile Marketing

Hi Bonnie, I am 100% against the Baucus Bill - it might as well have been written by the private insurance companies themselves. I too would prefer that government not have to get involved, lord knows that they mess up the bailout. I think though, that, while Social Security has a funding issue, the delivery mechanism and system itself is excellent. Of course that was written many decades ago and our current congress is filled with elected puppets and idiots, so it is frightening to ask them to do anything but get out of the way!

HI Kathy, thanks for chiming in. I know that there are challenges with your system, but atl least you don't have to worry about going bankrupt when you go to the doctor.

Dianne, I don't think that you are socialist at all, it's called realism.

Sep 27, 2009 01:52 AM

Bonnie Vaughan

Scranton, PA

CNE SFR - Buyers/Sellers - Lackawanna & Surroundin

Kate, Medicare and Medicaid while they work the payment scale is not always accepted by providers. That denies an individual with limited access to facilities from getting needed care or testing. It is necessary to carry a supplemental insurance to get some services. The fraud that goes on robs the system of needed funding.

The Baucas bill also has a provision for fines and/or jail time if you don't buy insurance. I just heard that today. Sounds more like setting up a police state than an insurance program.

Sep 28, 2009 02:05 AM

Kate Bourland

Marketing with Kate - Redding, CA

Onlilne Marketing Mobile Marketing

Bonnie, It's not the government's fault that there if fraud - it the people who committ the fraud!

Remember that there are five bills that have been written and we don't have a final bill yet. If the Baucus bill were the only bill I would be 100% against it. The Baucus Bill represents everything that is bad with our political and capitalist system. It's a slap in the face to the American People. Personally, I think that Baucus should be removed from office for bringing the bill to the table as it is written.

That said, it doesnt' change the fact that we need healthcare for all Americans. The Capitalist system fails us in this regard. It remains to be seen if the government will step up and do the right thing.

Sep 28, 2009 03:45 AM

Anonymous

Georgia

While it isn't the governments fault that people rob the tax payers, over and over and over again. It IS very much the governments fault that they haven't STOPPED IT. HR3200 has nothing, nada, zip in the 1,018 pages to stop the theft from the public!

No bill by the Dems has one word in them about tort reform. This is the doctors MAIN ISSUE. It would save us tax payers billions. Why isn't it in there?

Why isn't it in any of the bills to CHANGE the laws and allow state to state coverage?

Why isn't it in any of the bills to CHANGE the laws so that people can group together (like realtors) and get cheaper coverage?

Why isn't it in any of the bills to CHANGE the laws so that INDIVIDUALS get tax cuts NOT BUSINESS for healthcare??

Please explain this to me Kate.

We agree on a couple of things. Our Nation needs healthcare reform and all legal citizens should have basic coverage.

"I argue that a single payer system or public option will help us as individuals and help our businesses. If Americans are able to spend less on health-care, that means they have more to spend on housing! "

Where do you think the money would come from for all of these people to have "free" or "cheaper" coverage?? Taxes. Nothing is free in life.

Sep 28, 2009 01:47 PM

#18

Donne Knudsen

Los Angeles & Ventura Counties in CA - Simi Valley, CA

CalState Realty Services

Kate - Things that make you go.....hmmm. I'm not sure where I stand on the issue. I do agree that the current system favors big businesses and insurance companies at the expense of small businesses and the indivual and that there needs to be change. Not sure that a one payer system is the answer. Like you said though, the final bill isn't out yet so I will make my decision when it is. Thx for a great discussion though that I really need to think about more.

Oct 01, 2009 03:37 AM

Kate Bourland

Marketing with Kate - Redding, CA

Onlilne Marketing Mobile Marketing

Georgia, this debate shouldn't be about Republicans or Democrats - it should be about providing healthcare to all Americans. We often claim that our health care system is the best in the world - it isn't. It's actually 37th I think (it might be 47th). That is a banner to be proud of. Our entire financial and political system is broken - but we still have freedom of speech so it's a good system. The problem is that we as Americans need to stop allowing the media to polarize us with lies and misinformation.

Donne, thanks for stopping by. This is an interesting discussion. I just wish that we weren't all so polarized!

Oct 01, 2009 08:12 AM