I really wanted to start posting about the healthcare issue and the various plans that are now bubbling to the surface. I fully expected to create some sort of boiled-down comparison of the good, bad, and the ugly about: “universal healthcare” – which seems to be synonymous with “free healthcare for all”; “single-payer healthcare” – which is evolving into “you choose your healthcare plan, doctor, etc., and the government will pay the bills instead of all those nasty insurance companies”, and; “public-option” – which apparently is some form of “you can choose between the government program or a private program, but either way you will be required by law to have insurance”.

Intentions being what they are, I spent several hours over the weekend researching and came to the conclusion that there’s no way I can explain the different proposals. Which is mostly because – other than the simplistic explanations offered above – the plans are so nebulous and theoretical there is no “there” to compare.

But I do have a few observations/questions/comments that I’ll share, that can hopefully start a dialogue here.

1.) Re: Coverage: Is the plan going to cover citizens, legal immigrants, illegal immigrants, tourists? Will it cover doctor’s visits, hospital, emergency services (including ambulances and LifeFlight), dental, vision, prescriptions, rehab, medical equipment, nursing homecare? Any co-pays or deductibles?

2.) Re: Cost: As far as I can tell, there is no way in hell that any of the possible cost ramifications can be addressed until the coverage issued are nailed down. So all the estimates out there are no more than silly guesses for the sole purpose of furthering an agenda. But I’ll bet you any amount of money that the actual costs will be far in excess of even the highest guesstimates – that’s just stark-raving reality. Look at the numbers for Medicare and Medicaid. Remember how we were told that there would be “cost savings” from those programs?????

3.) Re: Consequences: Here’s another black hole. For example, with universal or single-payor plans – if you eliminate all the insurance companies – what happens to all those hundreds of thousands of now-unemployed people who aren’t paying taxes or premiums, but must be covered – are you considering the additional impacts to those systems just from that one industry? Now throw in all the folks who have lost jobs in the last six months even – have the authors of the plans included those additional expenses to the forecasted numbers? What happens when the unemployment numbers reach 10 – 12%???? Pardon me if I can’t quite figure out the impacts of these scenarios. And what about horrendous disasters??? Are the proponents prepared to fold that into the mix?

4.) Re: Politics: For instance, Baucus (on behalf of his buddies in the insurance industry – Way to Go, Max!) says single-payer is “off the table” in direct opposition to the administration’s plans. Throw in the Blue Dog Democrats and the kerfluffle gets going before the R’s weigh in. As this debate gets hotter, the politics of the thing will get nastier and nastier and honest accurate information that should be at the basis of any informed decision will be tossed farther under the bus than Rev. Wright.

It is likely that some form of healthcare bill will be debated in Congress this summer. I wonder, though, if in the end, it will be more sound and fury than substance? And possibly, the whole thing could get tabled “because of the economy stupid”. Washington frequently works that way.

And for that we are grateful.

What say you?