What don't I get about the health care debate?

I guess I just don’t get it.

We are having a lot of discussion lately about the cost of and access to health care and whether the federal government should play a role therein.

The cost of health care is making many otherwise profitable businesses marginal or even losers. I have medical coverage and am grateful that my employer has made that possible, but it is a small company and I wonder what it is doing for the company’s bottom line.

Yet it seems that all the plans being advanced by all the political types seem to continue basing access to health care on employers and one’s employment status.

We complain about the high cost of what becomes subsidized emergency room care, but the fact is that health care providers do not offer the public the same rates they charge individuals. While it is usually considered good business to offer volume purchasers a better deal, this makes the burden on the uninsured [or improperly insured] onerous.

I do not know what is the answer, but somehow we need to make sure that we all have access to medical and dental care at rates which don’t rip the general public off and which do not require an employer to have to factor in expenses which similar employers in other countries have to cover and allow all people the option to change employers or to enter or leave other employment or self-employment.