I believe in freedom and therefore am adamantly opposed to the very idea of consigning my person to a government run health system.
But many of the problems in our current messed up health insurance situation are problems that could be solved by government.
For instance, the problem of the high cost of medical care.
Medicine in 21st century America is, to put it simply, miraculous. We can transplant eyes, hearts, knees, hips, livers...and I don't even know what else. That's just plain incredible. Isaac Asimov never imagined such a future and he was writing sci-fi a mere half century ago.
Miracles don't come cheap. You want cheap, you get bad miracles. So spoke
Miracle Max and truer words were never caught on film.
It bothers me when I hear people whining about the high cost of medicine when they are referring to such miracles. Not all miracles are as flashy as open heart surgery. Nasonex is a prescription medication for seasonal allergies. A six month supply costs about $116.00, without insurance. If you think $116.00 is more than you'd want to pay to be able to breathe while not trying to claw out your itchy eyes, then you clearly don't suffer from allergies.
The problem in our system is not that miracles are expensive but that miracles are required too often just to protect the doctors. In medical school, would be doctors are told "When you hear hoof beats, look for horses, not zebras." This bit of advice simply means to teach doctors that most illnesses are ordinary. But our litigious society has produced an atmosphere where doctors, if they don't want to be financially ruined by the mis-guided big hearts of stupid juries, now have to run every test known to man, no matter how expensive they may be, on every patient they treat. The new advice in med school may as wel be "When you hear hoof beats, look for horses, zebras and unicorns, just to be safe."
Government could fix this problem with one page of legislation reforming tort law. The first step would be to follow the UK's example and make plaintiff's liable for all court costs if they lose. As it is, one can be financially ruined by a law suit even if one wins. That must change. Tort reform would alleviate costs not only in the medical world but in all areas of life in the USA.
Tort reform is no where to be found in current health care legislation.
Why?
Another problem regarding health insurance that the government could do something about, is portability. As laws currently stand, you can't shop across state lines for health insurance. This not only limits competition and choice, it means that you need to buy new insurance if you move to a new state, whether for a job, retirement or any other reason. This drives prices way up. This situation only exists because law makers created it. What government does, government can undo.
Portability across state lines is not addressed in current legislation.
Why?
The House Bill under debate right now is a 1018 page monstrosity that doesn't even address two of the first things that must be done to make health insurance in America more affordable and accessible. What the hell does the 1018 pages address? Well, it manages to bring every doctor in the country under the boot of the government, it eliminates any concept of privacy from American life, whether medical or financial. That's right, this bill gives the feds access to your financial accounts.
You doubt it?
Think about this; the
Constitution of the United States is only four pages (plus 27 amendments) yet the feds have found within it the right to an abortion and the right (for the government ) to take Citizen A's property and give it to Citizen B.
If you think for one second that the feds can't find language in 1018 pages to do what ever the hell they want to everyone, then you are too stupid for words.
HR 3200 is nothing less than a massive bait and switch. The feds are promising us "health care" so that they can deliver us into state bondage. HR 3200 affectively turns us all from free citizens into subjects.
" Is Life so dear or Peace so sweet to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?
Forbid it, Almighty God!
I know not what course others may take;
But as for me,
Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!"
If you don't know who spoke those words 233 years ago, shame on you.
