Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Empathy doesn't solve Oregon's health care crisis

Categories: Oregon

If you don't have health care insurance in Oregon, don't worry you can enter your name in a lottery to get it.

According to the AP:

"The state will start drawing names this week for the chance to enroll in a health care program designed for people not poor enough for Medicaid but too cash-strapped to buy their own insurance."

I am not opposed to helping 600,000 uninsured Oregonians get health care but this is doesn't address the overall problem...rising cost in health care.

But you know what, who cares, right?

This woman doesn't:

"It's better than nothing, it's at least a hope," said Shirley Krueger, 61, who signed up the first day.

She says, it's better than nothing. This is worse. Her kind of attitude gets us in trouble.

See, the cost of health care is arbitrary because people aren't asking what things cost. Then providers will raise their prices because they know the state of Oregon will pay anything for Ms. Krueger's check-ups.

However, the state will eventually figure out they can't afford to take care of people and will have to increase taxes or shutdown.

Don't believe me?