Carl Hiaasen: We're sick; the system's even sicker

It's easy to get distracted by the vaudevillian aspects of the health-care debate.

My favorites are the few beet-faced droolers who show up at town-hall meetings to rail against government involvement, while simultaneously warning President Obama to ``keep your hands off my Medicare'' -- the biggest, costliest, most socialistic government program in U.S. history.
It's also a program that happens to work, although not nearly as efficiently as it could.
Nobody with an I.Q. higher than emergency-room temperature could ever believe that ``death panels'' would be appointed to nudge the elderly toward euthanasia. Yet for idle entertainment, it's hard to beat Sarah Palin's ignorant nattering on the subject.

Informed opponents of Obama's healthcare initiative have expressed dismay at the lowly level of discourse. John Goodman, president of the conservative National Center for Policy Analysis, told The New York Times:
``I think the critics have approached this in the wrong way; saying there's to be a death panel is not the right way. The right way to approach it is to put the burden of proof on the administration -- tell us how you're going to do (reform) without denying care to people who are really in need.''

.....

Nobody knows for sure how many Americans don't have medical coverage, but the most frequent estimates range from 43 million to 47 million. Some carry no insurance by choice, but the majority simply cannot afford it.
We've already spent more on Iraq than the Democrats' current healthcare plans are projected to cost over the next decade. Yet some of the same bright bulbs in Congress who were excited to bankroll that foolish invasion are now huffing indignantly about the price tag for insuring our own citizens.

Reform can't work without including the uninsured, not just because it's humane but because it will ultimately save taxpayers a fortune. The public cost of treating uninsured patients, who often don't see a doctor until there's an emergency,is boggling.
If a single day in the hospital can cost 11 grand (or more), the tab for staying a week or a month could crush an average family. Whether a patient is uninsured or underinsured, if he or she can't write the check, the rest of us will.

That's one reason hospital expenses are so astronomical -- we're subsidizing a sick, bloated system. It would be far cheaper to make sure everybody had a decent health plan.

In medicine, there's really no such thing as an unpaid bill. Somebody always get stuck.