By Evan Falchuk
I’ve been making the point that health reform’s troubles are due to a fundamental failure of reformers to understand that health care is all about employee benefits.
At Real Clear Politics, former New York City Mayor Ed Koch shows you what I mean. He recently had bypass surgery:
I speak from personal experience. I have been told that the cost of my hospital care, including the services of 20 doctors and 72 nurses and medical technicians over a six-week period may ultimately cost a million dollars. My private insurance policy is paid for by my law firm, Bryan Cave LLP, and because I still work full-time, that insurance policy is my primary one, not Medicare, even though I am 84 years old. Will that continue to be the case under any law signed by President Obama or will I be denied the right to spend my own money and my law firm’s for such unlimited coverage?
Koch says he think the answer is probably “yes,” but he’s very unsure. In fact, he points to quotes from Administration officials along these lines that he says are “alarming.”
So, is the problem with health care reform politics? Of course there is politics, but I don’t think Ed Koch is motivated by that.
No, Koch’s article illustrates something else.
If someone as sophisticated as Ed Koch is left wondering about the answer to fundamental questions about reform, how can you expect others, paying much less attention, to feel otherwise?
