Burlington Free Press
By Beach Conger
Hardly a week goes by these days without someone asking me what I think about ‘all this health care stuff’ as they call it, lumping together into one wad, ObamaCare, Green Mountain Health Care, and their own particular plot of the health insurance swamp.
They don’t really want to know what I think, of course. Even though I am their doctor, which I realize full well. I am no fool. I have been around the block enough times to know that, even when they ask for it, no sane person ever wants the opinion of someone else, being supplied, as that person must be, with quite an adequate stock of his own. And I know full well that when they pay me to listen to their complaints, that means not just their aching bones or their interminable nights or their Aged P. And so I say to them something along the lines of what a complicated business this stuff is, that being the perfect invitation for them to explain to me exactly what should be done about it.
As a result, despite the fact that I have been in this line of work for a very long time and have festered upon these issues more than I care to remember, I never get my turn to tell anyone what I actually do think.
Until now.
So here is what I have to say.
It’s all a bit silly.
Medicare and I were born in the same year. Professionally speaking, that is. We were raised together, and we have been married to each other for what seems an eternity. As with any long-term relationship, we have had our ups and downs, but we have both matured over the years, and I believe we are both the better for it. Without being too vain, I have to say I have done a better job at providing health care, and I have to admit that Medicare has helped me do it.
At first, it just made sure that those retired people who wished to pay me the fees to which those in my line of work have become so accustomed, could actually do so. But eventually it realized that there was more to the business than just money, and it began to keep an eye over my shoulder, making sure I was not leaving undone those things which ought to be done and not doing those things which I ought not.
And it’s a pretty good deal. Part A, which is free, provides a solid basic service of preventive and hospital care. Parts B and D, for a very reasonable fee, do a fair job of paying doctors and pharmacy bills. If someone should want a bit extra, there are a whole gaggle of supplemental plans available to suit any taste and pocketbook — and to keep the insurance companies happy.
So I can’t help but think, why not Medicare for everyone? It would be so simple. And that’s when I realized.
It was too simple.
Because what would happen to all those intelligent, dedicated and hardworking politicians and planners and lawyers who are working day and night to create and to implement and to defend all this stuff’?
Why, they would be out of work, of course.
And then there wouldn’t be enough workers any more — to pay for Medicare.
Beach Conger of Burlington is an internist who practices at Mount Ascutney Hospital in Windsor and at Community Health Center of Burlington.