• Originally published November 6, 2009 at 4:39 p.m., updated November 7, 2009 at 3:30 p.m.

Let me preface this column with the statement that I hate health insurance companies. The executives of these companies should never be allowed in heaven. If they, by chance, were to sneak in, they should be allowed to stay only three days.

That being said, I would rather argue with a money-grubbing insurance company than try to reason with government bureaucrats who are accountable to no one.

Our health care system needs to be fixed, but I fear that a government-run option is not part of the solution. After all, the Feds have done somewhat less than a stellar job with Amtrak (a "temporary" takeover in 1971) and the Postal Service.

There is a problem that I do not see being addressed in any of the proposals circulating on Capitol Hill. State-imposed mandates add layers of coverage that most policyholders will never need or use, but which drive up costs. I can only imagine what mandates Congress would add to a federal program. What liberal politician would vote against including sex change operations or in-vitro treatments in a federal plan?

There is nothing I see in any of the proposed plans that would cover abortion services or extend coverage to illegal aliens. Federal courts could accomplish such aims by judicial decisions imposed later. Abortions could be covered under the right to female reproduction services, and the court could rule it illegal to require verification of workers' immigration status before enrolling them in the federal program. How many Service Employees International union members are illegal? The politicians could then find cover saying it was the courts that extended these benefits, not Congress.

BHO (Obama) says that those who are happy with their plans and doctors can keep them. This would be true if their plan can afford to continue, and if their doctors will accept any alternative plan such as the federal option. What would the Feds do if a physician refuses to see patients enrolled in the federal plan? I need three licenses to practice medicine: a Texas state license, a Texas DPS drug registration and a DEA number (license). The Feds issue my DEA certificate and could conceivably withhold such license if I refuse to see federal plan patients much in the same way they use highway transportation funds to bully states into compliance with federal mandates.

President Obama wants his legislation critics to shut up and let him quickly fix a medical system that obviously is one he does not understand.

It is interesting that it took President Obama the better part of a year to decide what kind of dog to get his kids, but he wants to redo American society overnight.

In redoing our health system, we need to consider the "Big Mac" effect.

When it costs McDonald's more to make a Big Mac than they can charge for it, that burger will disappear.

The same is true of health care services when reimbursements are lowered to reduce costs and cease to cover expenses.

My advice to Congress is to remember the old military axiom KISS (keep it simple stupid).

Dr. Carleton K. Thompson lives in Hallettsville and has his medical practice in gastroenterology.

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