Health Reform Challenge: Identify the Problems; Win $1,000

If you have a college student interested in medicine or the health care industry, point them toward the Kaiser Family Foundation, which is running an essay contest.

College graduate and undergraduate students are asked to write 1,000 words about the biggest health policy challenges facing the U.S. If they identify the top two priorities and cogently discuss how they think they should be addressed, they could win $1,000. Second-place winners will get $500.

The timing couldn't be better. In fact, in the wake of the Obama Administration reviving the health reform proposal, these are topics that every American should consider.

What do you think our biggest health care challenges are?

I'm going to jump in and say that I think the biggest policy issue is that we, as a society, have decided that health care is a right, not a privilege. And that means you're entitled to unlimited health care, even when there's no question that you may only have a few days to live. That's even when your health problems are of your own making, like alcoholism or drug addiction. And even when you have chosen not to protect your health by buying health insurance.

And yet, no one wants to pay the tab.

We moan about the cost of our insurance premiums; about deductibles that might set us out $500 a year; we write heart-wrenching stories about people who didn't get life-saving treatments because they didn't buy insurance or their insurers denied coverage. We never question whether this person should have gotten the treatment anyway, particularly if they were so certain it would save their life, finding a way to pay for it out of his or her own pocket.

We accept, without question, that every human being should fight for every breath of life, unless of course, they have to pay for the medical care that prolongs their lives themselves.

We demonize insurance companies, acting as if they're the evil parent holding a fat pocketbook that they refuse to use to help their ailing children. And while insurers have certainly done plenty to earn a bad reputation, we fail to acknowledge that we put them in that position by demanding low-deductible policies that allow us to run to the doctor for every sniffle, without ever wondering whether the cost-benefit of that visit would make any sense if the money came out of our pockets.

The money does come out of our own pockets, regardless of whether you get insurance through work or alone. Companies pay for your benefits, which means they can pay you (or their shareholders, who are also you) less when they pay more to cover your every ache.

And, let's be clear on one point. If we pass a comprehensive health reform measure like the one Obama has proposed, far more of our money will be spent on health care. You will not be able to squeeze insurers, doctors and hospitals enough to make this reform "free" for every human being who pays the tab either through higher health insurance premiums or through federal income taxes.

I grew up hearing the mantra that "with every right comes responsibility."

So, if we have a right to health care, what's our responsibility?