Decoding Health Insurance                                                                                                                               

Questions and Answers are cited below as

"Q" and "A"

1. Q: Why do I bring this subject up again?

A: Because the decoding of the human genome gene "offers researchers the sequence of all the letters of the human book of life, a monumental resource despite our imperfect understanding of the bookís overarching, mind-boggling complexity."

As the annexed New York Times Op-Ed of Sunday, May 22, 2005 states:

   "As decoding gathers speed, it promises to change just about everything we know about medicine in the form of understanding, prediction, prevention, diagnosis and the treatment of disease."

My continuing human interest relates particularly to the article's further statement:

   "This offers a remarkable opportunity to solve the huge and meddlesome problem for paying for health care in the United States."

2. Q: Is there further importance to the foregoing?

A: Yes. As the article states:    "The importance of a rapid increase in prognostic ability is underlined by the growing understanding that every disease has a greater or lesser genetic component. Patients can now avail themselves of preventive measures or treatment even before symptoms occur."

3. Q: Is there a down side?

A: Yes, and it is brought out by the article. In short, the recipients of advance information on the probability in a particular field, puts the insurers in the following position.

   "In this dawning era of genomic medicine, the result may be that the concept of private health insurance, which is based on actuarially pooling risk within specified, fragmented groups, will become obsolete since risk cannot be pooled if it can be determined for individual policyholders. Genetically determined predilection for disease will become the modern equivalent of the "pre-existing condition" that private insurers have stringently avoided."

4. Q: What is the constructive importance, if any, in that fact?

A: Robin Cook, author of this article and also a medical doctor states:

   "As a doctor I have always been against health insurance except for catastrophic care and for the very poor. It has been my experience that the doctor-patient relationship is the most personal and rewarding for both the patient and the doctor when a clear, direct fiduciary relationship exists. In such a circumstance, both individuals value the encounter more, which invariably leads to more time, more attention to potentially important details, and a higher level of patient compliance and satisfaction - all of which invariably result in a better outcome."

5. Q: But is there an even more important indication to these facts?

A: Yes. The article further explains:

   "But with the end of pooling risk within defined groups, there is only one solution to the problem of paying for health care in the United States: to pool risk for the entire nation. (Under the rubric of health care I mean a comprehensive package that includes preventive care, acute care and catastrophic care.) Although I never thought I'd advocate a government-sponsored, obviously non-profit, tax-supported universal access, single-payer plan, I've changed my mind: the sooner we move to such a system, the better off we will be. Only with universal health care will we be able to pool risk for the entire country and share what nature has dealt us; only then will there be no motivation for anyone or any organization to ferret out an individual's confidential, genetic makeup."

6. Q: Is there a connection between the foregoing and implications of health insurance for Iraq?

A: Yes. I can think of no subject more consequent to an eventual plan for democracy in Iraq, than its leading to national health insurance in Iraq.

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cc: George W. Bush, President
Richard Cheney, Vice President
John Kerry, Senator
Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State
Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense
Colonel Oliver North
Michael Chertoff, Secretary of Homeland Security
Alberto Gonzales, U.S. Attorney General
Tony Blair, Prime Minister of Great Britain
Jack Straw, British Foreign Secretary
Newt Gingrich, Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel
His Excellency Daniel Ayalon Ambassador of Israel
Benjamin Netanyahu, Economy Minister for the Israeli Government
Israel's "Women In Green" National Unity Coalition for Israel
Arianna Huffington, Syndicated Columnist
Oriana Fallaci, International Journalist, Interviewer and Author
Yohanan Ramati, Chairman, Jerusalem
Institute for Western Defense
Gerardo Joffe, FLAME (Facts & Logic About the Middle East)
Mortimer Zuckerman, Editor in Chief - US News and World Report
Time Magazine
Washington Post - Attn: Bob Woodward
International Jerusalem Post
The Weekly Standard - Bill Kristol, Editor
The Wall Street Journal - Editorial and Op-Ed Department
The New York Times, Op-Ed Department
Los Angeles Times, Op-Ed Department
Dr. and Mrs. Jordan Phillips, Medical Books for China International