Studies show families can't keep up with insurance costs

On the same day the New York Times was reporting that Democrats in Congress might give up on efforts to create a bipartisan health care reform bill, a couple of lobbying groups were reporting some numbers that you'd think would make Republicans as well as Democrats rush to sign up for health care reform. Families USA and Action for Children North Carolina were reporting that health insurance premiums had risen five times as fast as wages since 2000.

Despite all the choreographed protests at town hall meetings, where people held up signs shouting "Hands Off My Health Care," "No Pubic Option" and "No Socialized Medicine," the fact is health care in America is spiraling out of control. Private insurance is a complicated and often illogical and cruel system that picks and chooses which patients and which conditions it wishes to cover. At the same time, as the Families USA study shows, the cost of health insurance to both families and employers is rising so fast no one can keep up. At least some of the indignant protesters at these town hall meetings were motivated by misinformation about the health care reform legislation, such as the blatant lie that allowed billing for physician counseling about advanced directives into "death panels." Others ludicrously proclaimed their opposition to governmental health care while carrying Medicare cards in their pockets.

The costs of the labyrinthine private insurance system (paid mostly by employers) is on an unsustainable trajectory and is hurting American competitiveness against other economies where health care is not so expensive or such a burden on employers. Legislation is needed to simplify the system, increase competition (or switch to a single-payer system, which would be even harder to achieve politically than the modest reforms being proposed) and ensure coverage for the poor and chronically ill.

You'd think that the 535 people we elected to Congress could see this need and work together toward a reform that would benefit individual constituents and the country as a whole. But it looks like partisan politics and the power of lobbying money might prevail again.