Steve Kagen: “I agree with you that many people get very confused when you start talking about bean counting and you get into the…”

“I agree with you that many people get very confused when you start talking about bean counting and you get into the numbers. It gets very confusing. We might be better off for everyone to understand health care and simplify it if we talk about trying to identify the essential elements that should be in any successful universal health care initiative. Those essential elements that I don't think anyone would disagree with would be that if you are a citizen, you should be in the risk pool. Because in every State, what they are trying to do now as they seek to find a solution to this urgent problem, every State is trying to form a larger buying group, a larger insurance pool. That is really their only game plan to leverage down the costs. But if we have 300 million in an insurance risk pool with regional modifiers, we can really begin to leverage down insurance costs. I would ask this question, what is the purpose of having health insurance? Health insurance is a form of delayed income. You put your hard-earned money into the insurance company's hands so that when you or a member of your family becomes ill, you get it back. But unfortunately today, when the money goes into the insurance company, you have to fight like heck to get it back, and it may not come back in total. Health insurance should be available to everyone at an openly disclosed price, so everyone has an opportunity to buy something that is affordable. Let us look at the numbers.…”