Get Well Soon, Debbie

One of my role models, Debbie Harbeson, is feeling poorly:

One of the more interesting reasons given by officials on why competition won’t decrease costs is due to the labor shortage it would create. If nurses and other health care workers have more choices on where to work, hospitals would have to pay more for them. Here’s more proof that the system is infected because they are saying it’s bad for nurses to have too many job options. Maybe I’m confused due to this bug I’m experiencing, but I always thought local governments liked to say jobs are a good thing. Suddenly it’s not? Sounds like the nurses might come out much better with increased competition and the situation will also likely attract more people to the field.

This news about our hard-working nurses made me feel better, so I got out of bed and walked to the mailbox. I started feeling wobbly again when I began reading a slick re-election campaign advertisement from my state senator Jim Lewis telling me we need “a statewide healthcare plan.” I turned the card over and it said some legislators were going to work hard to adopt a “statewide universal health care system by 2008.” I had to run to the bathroom on that one.

Hasn’t government interference already spread enough germs into the current mess?

Do we really want to try to solve healthcare problems by having government build an even bigger bureaucratic wall between ourselves and our doctors? Do you think universal health care will increase or decrease your choices?

This isn't all of her column for this week; go read the rest. It's just what the doctor ordered.