One of the biggest priorities under the Obama presidency right now is health care reform. Whether you are a rightest or a leftist, a Republican or a Democratic, a conservative or a liberal, it is agreed upon that changes need to be made with the U.S. health care system.

Courtesy of fairuselab.net

The problem lies in the rising health care costs. Health care spending continues to rise forcing businesses to cut back on health care coverage. National health spending is expected to reach $2.5 trillion in 2009, accounting for 17.6 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). National health expenditures are expected to increase faster than the growth in GDP: between 2008 and 2018, the average increase in national health expenditures is expected to be 6.2 percent per year, while the GDP is expected to increase only 4.1 percent per year. There is a reason why we have the best health care in the world. We are paying for it.

There is a fine line between giving adequate health care coverage and keeping a high level of health care quality. The Obama administration is currently pushing a government-run health plan. Their idea is to add a government-run insurer (”usually called a public plan”) to compete with health insurance companies in a price war. The idea is geared towards giving us a less expensive option, but also sacrificing in health care quality. On the surface this sounds like a pretty good idea; however, because the government would be in control of the costs, they would obviously be able to lower prices to their desired level eventually causing the other health care insurers to go under. This process would, in turn, seriously hinder the motivation to provide excellent health care and the quality would go down drastically. This same process has been experienced in countries like England, France and Canada; they all have government-run programs and their health care quality has suffered because of it.

Health care changes need to be made, but this is not the best way to do it. The reason behind this “public plan” is that the government leaders know some of the best health care in the country is provided at the lowest cost — e.g. The Mayo Clinic is in the bottom 15% for cost per patient — so solutions to real cost control without government control exist. There is only one problem — the long term goal of the Obama health care reform is the elimination of private insurers in favor of a single government program. The proposed public option is a way of starting down this road.