“Socialized medicine” is primarily an ideology espoused by Democrats. Contrary to popular belief, however, a nationalized health care system has never been on President-elect Obama’s agenda. His agenda has always been to help those who are uninsured or need assistance obtaining health care coverage due to low income. Part of his plan is to expand the role of SCHIP and state insurance risk pools so that those who become “uninsurable” in the individual primary medical market have access to guaranteed insurability.

Many states have already established risk pools. However, states like Arizona and Florida do not. These states desperately need such venture funds. Unfortunately, they have so far been unable to receive enough federal funding to expand this much-needed role. President-elect Obama wants to provide more federal funding to these existing risk groups to lower premiums and thereby make this option more affordable for the uninsured.

One reason a “nationalized” health care system has never been on Obama’s agenda is probably due to the appalling failure of such programs in countries like France and Canada. However, “socialized medicine” proposals often use Canada as a model for the US health care system to follow. Those who live in Canada know very well that their government-run health care program is certainly not working. In fact, many Canadian citizens choose to hire high-priced brokers to find quality health care right here in the United States due to the terrible bureaucracy that controls all forms of health care in Canada. To learn about the current Canadian health care system and how it correlates to the current state of health care in the United States, please watch the short but informative video documentaries included in the first blog post on health care found at end of this article.

The truth of the matter is that we already have a tremendous number of entitlement programs available to those who cannot afford their health care. Many times these law programs are offered to those who are here legally and illegally as was the case in the State of Illinois. More recently, the state of Hawaii tried to emulate the Medicaid expansion programs that were enacted in Illinois. It took less than 7 months for their program to go bankrupt.

Ultimately, the best way to offset the high cost of health care in the US is to embrace the initiatives established more than a decade ago by Senator Bill Archer (R) of Texas. The HSA (Health Savings Account) commonly known as a “Medical IRA” in conjunction with a HDHP (High Deductible Health Plan) is a unique option that maintains high-quality health insurance coverage for the policyholder , while creating a tax-deductible, tax-deferred interest-bearing account for the insured to use for future medical expenses. Many medical expenses that would not normally be covered by a traditional health insurance plan would be a 100% tax deduction when the insured owns a tax-qualified HDHP. The list of IRS-approved expenses can be found in the HSA section of the IRS website.

Even if one cannot qualify for the HDHP option mentioned above due to subscription restrictions. There are still several other options now available to those who have become “uninsurable” in the individual health insurance market. These options are as follows:

1.) The aforementioned State Insurance Hazard Group Coverage provided under HIPAA that provides continuous continuation coverage once the insured has lost the employer-sponsored group or has been offered Cobra continuation coverage and then he has exhausted it. To find out which states have risk pools, visit: http://www.naschip.org/states_pools.htm

2.) Employer or small group sponsored health insurance that contains the very important “guaranteed insurability” clause. A small group policy can be purchased by as few as two people (often a husband and wife working under the same business tax identification number).

3.) Guaranteed issuance of individually issued HIPAA certified “defined benefit” health insurance policies to anyone, regardless of medical history. While these plans offer limited benefits, they will cover pre-existing conditions such as cancer and diabetes from day one, as long as the applicant can provide a Certificate of Creditable Coverage from their prior provider showing at least 18 months of continuous coverage without a lapse of time. more than 63 days

In the end, consumer education and retention of existing federal entitlement programs (through a legitimate needs assessment test) will go a long way in not only maintaining our current health care system, but also maintaining risk of most of our nations where it belongs, namely with the private health insurance sector. In light of the recent $7 trillion “bailout” and many other bankrupt corporations that sat at the table hat in hand (and their private jets on the tarmac), the last thing our government should do is start cutting more blind “bailouts”. “controls in an effort to “reform” the United States health care system.