As the nation’s governors meet in Washington this week, Democrats and Republicans seem to accept that Obamacare cannot be repealed.
As millions enroll, even its most determined opponents realize that the public wants the insurance and unless any plan that could replace it can be devised, it will stay.
States are already working to expand the Medicaid program and are seeing that enrollments in private insurance are rising. Surely the system needs improvement and if the GOP can get past the politicization of health care and focus on wellness, there will be room for improvement.
Ultimately, the public and the Congress will admit that the intrusion of the exchanges is a costly, unfair and inefficient solution.
Money that is wasted on administration could be better used on access and treatment.
We have Medicare, Medicaid and the Veteran’s Administration as models to copy as ways to create a better, unnecessarily fragmented system, with a better means of financing it.
And if we stop and realize that a universal system would improve our health outcomes and raise our truly abysmal status compared to other industrialized nations, perhaps we will influence our lawmakers to do the right thing.
We cannot accept the fiction that a better system will reduce jobs. We will add jobs because we are treating more people.
The only thing that would be reduced would be the profits of the insurers and the unbelievable compensation paid to their executives. We need to add positions for those who treat more people and administer the processing of claims.
A last word: Get the lobbyists out of our health care!
Esther Confino
New Hyde Park
