And somewhere in the middle lie the facts...

Citizens of Transylvania, UNITE!  Congress has been up on the Hill building monsters again.  (Line freely plagiarized from a play script I read one time. IIRC it was "Light Up the Sky".) 

Why is it that politicos and pundits all see the problem with "health" care as an issue of insurance.  When people didn't have insurance their sick care (which is REALLY what we are talking about in the great debate) consisted of calling the doctor to the house when you couldn't cure it yourself.  Now with the concomitant circumstance of coverage and litigation we are treated to home wrecking sick care costs predicated on the practice of medicine that supplies the highest cost whiz bang pharmaceuticals, regardless of efficacy, provided by companies with the biggest advertising budgets (as well as detail reps with the biggest busts) and the most congresscritters in their pockets.  All overseen by a power hungry (it's a government agency, what would you expect?) FDA intent on rubber stamping so called college research grant generated reports reminiscent of nineteenth century snake oil spiels.  "Independent research" on products of companies "supporting" it to the tune of billions of dollars is an oxymoron, at best.

Meanwhile back at the court house, doctors are spending an inordinate amount of time defending their malpractice of not calling for an MRI for every hangnail, or are back in their offices interpreting the results of the MRIs prescribed with reckless abandon in an effort to stay out of court.  Why the hell not, insurance is covering it.

So now, the cost of government and industry sky-rockets ostensibly due to the cost of health care benefits afforded to their employees; benefits that the employees earn on an hour-by-hour, day-by-day basis.  Let it never be said that employers "provide" health insurance any more than they "provide" three hots and a cot for their employees and their families.  It is earned by employees as part of their wage and benefit package.  Unfortunately too many employees believe the promises of their employers.  Instead of collecting their insurance costs on a paycheck-to-paycheck basis they trust that the insurance will be there if and  when they need it.  Rather like pensions and social security, health insurance becomes an "unfunded liability".  Now when it's time to pay up, the employer whines about the expense, while the employee whines about the employer being broke.  In reality it's the product of mutual stupidity and/or duplicity.

Along comes the Troika from Hell (Kenyan Kommunist Pretender, Bolshevik Bimbo from the Land of Fruits and Nuts and the Marxist Mormon from the Mafia State) with another stupid government program that purports to solve the problem by forcing every body into the program that caused it in the first place.  Mandatory "health insurance" makes as much sense as Jim Jones' exhortations to drink the Kool-Aid.  And with the promise of turning the monitoring over to the American Gestapo (IRS) with similar brand of "persuasion".

So lets just blame the problem on union contracts.  Note the lame stream media emphasis is on "union" not "contract".  A contract is a mutual agreement between parties.  If you don't think the contract is to your mutual advantage, don't enter into it.  First complaint is that the cost of labor is too high.  I've got a bulletin for you, Spanky; the cost of labor is now, has always and will be forevermore the same.  One hundred percent.  Nothing in your lifestyle is made of material that did not come from God's green Earth.  Nothing.  All you pay is for the labor of the folks who dug it up, cut it down, harvested or processed it, and carried it to your store or door.  (And of course the four times average American wage for congresscritters to legislate half again the cost into their own collective pocket.)

Next logical step is government provided health care.  Anybody who thinks that will work has only to speak to any veteran unfortunate enough to deal with the VA "health care" system.  A bunch of generally really nice people bogged down in a bureaucracy and inundated by enough clientele to make a six month wait for an appointment almost a given.  Call any VAMC (Veterans Administration Medical Center) and the first thing you will hear is "if this is an emergency, hang up and dial 911".  At least they're honest.

Let it never be said that I would elucidate a problem without tendering a solution.  I propose that every one be given the opportunity to have a Health Savings Account and that health care insurance plans have a reasonable threshold of say, $10,000 or one calendar quarter's gross income whichever is smaller  (That's a threshold, not a deductible or co-pay.)  Individuals would be given full tax credit for any deposits into an HSA until their threshold offset is met, and for any subsequent deposits to replenish the account.  By removing the mickey mouse small claims onto the shoulders of the patient's HSA the cost of insurance would rapidly plummet.  So too would the overhead of claims processing to the medical professionals.  The lower premium cost would offset HSA deposit cost to the employee and the higher wage would increase tax revenue to the government.

Might be worth a closer look.  Couldn't be any worse than what we got.