My thoughts on health care...

Yesterday, I had the time to watch one of the President's town hall meetings selling health care reform. My thoughts are simple and succinct:

• for years I have believed that health insurance needs to be divorced from employment. Why? because for decades we (or our employer on our behalf) pays in to a system when we are mostly healthy and able bodied. As we age and retire, and most in need of the care we've been paying for, we are suddenly uninsured. That just doesn't make sense to me. This would also apply to those who were paying in to the system and then came down with a chronic illness, etc. We should get credit for the years of coverage when we didn't really use the benefit we were paying for. It is my belief that over the course of a lifetime there will be times the insurance company is making money (when we are young and healthy) and times when they are paying out (when we are older or ill)
• also, I don't know anyone who lives under a socialized system that is satisfied with their health care (Canada or Europe primarily, Australians seem to like their coverage). I like the options that our privatized system offers us. I get to choose my doctor, procedures, pharmaceutical options. I like the freedom afforded me in a privatized system. I don't want to be lumped in to a big socialized system that looses the personal touch I've become accustomed to.

Can we successfully divorce insurance from employment and still have viable private options? I believe so. I am realistic that government will have a role in this, but I don't think government is the final answer. It is my hope that we will find a reasonable solution that retains the freedoms I enjoy.

What's your opinion on health care reform?