CBS has released a poll about what the expectations are of the 11oth congress. The full poll is here, but what’s interesting is that the top expectation, at 45% is Iraq and health-care is tied for second at 7% with the economy/jobs. Immigration a close third at 6%.

Meanwhile, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that California Insurers

. . . be required to offer benefits that include disease-prevention programs such as those to help people stop smoking, manage their diabetes and be screened for breast cancer.

The insurers, as well as state health programs such as Medi-Cal, would have to offer incentives to participants. The incentives could include vouchers, premium reductions or credits for health-related items such as gym memberships or Weight Watchers. Employers would have to buy those plans for workers to have access to them. (source: LaTimes)

The LaTimes has been covering Schwarzenegger’s various statements about his concerns about the uninsured and health-care, most recently the comments that California’s uninsured act as a hidden tax on people who are insured. It would not be surprising that he follow Governor Romney of Massachusetts in requiring insurance coverage for all residents. The Massachusetts plan is the result of a bill passed by the legislature in April, which
includes government subsidies to help low-income individuals buy insurance. And companies with 11 or more employees are required to help pay for health insurance.

So we have three Republican governors, Schwarzenegger, Romney and Rell touting some form of universal health-care and proposing some plan. In each case the plans embrace the current system of continuing use of insurers to deliver access to care. The insurance industry’s self preservation is at stake here. Any plan that continues the reliance on insurance to provide access to health-care guarantees profits. The reality is that there’s a difference between health care and health insurance. And it’s health care that needs to focus of legislators, not health insurance. As long as health care providers can continue to avoid standard market driven competition by the choke hold that insurance companies place on restricting access to patients, health care costs will continue to go rise.

Texas serves as a perfect example of what happens when the wrong choice is made when it comes to what legislation to focus on. In Texas, which along with California leads the nation with the highest number of uninsured, tort-reform lobbyists succeeded in getting legislation focused on limiting patient law suits, all under the guise of reducing health-care costs. Yet in Texas, as in the rest of the country, health care costs, and health care insurance continue to rise, well past the rates of increase in wages or inflation. Bad bureaucracy is bad bureaucracy whether provided by private companies, insurance companies, or government. While corporations spend huge amounts of money to ensure that the debate about health-care revolves around insurance, they are obscuring the fact that they are responsible for the rising costs, the mediocrity and the scarcity of affordable health care.