Fun and games with your health

March is almost gone, slipping away faster and faster as the month proceeds. With much more going on than in the first two months of the year it is amazing how quickly this period of transition from winter to less winter accelerates through the calendar. I wanted to get one more post in before April shows up.

The fools that we have (hey, not we; I didn't vote for anyone who supported it) elected to represent us in Washington have made the largest power grab in U.S. history by passing a bill providing for national health care. Upwards of two-thirds of the constituents don't want it, at least not in its current form. I just can't think of anything that will kill off a health care system that has developed the greatest patient care in the world more effectively than turning it over to Uncle Sam.

What are these people thinking?

"Oh," you say, "It is good but what good if no one can afford it?"

Actually it is a fairly small slice of people that can't afford it. There are others who do not care to have health insurance although they could work it into their budget if they were inclined. The system we have is clogged with -- especially in the south and south west -- illegal aliens who are here to get free care. They know that they can't be turned away from an emergency room until stabilized, which is all any of them really want. Who pays for that? We The People.

The same goes for Americans who have other priorities than health care. Some have addictions that are costly and leave little room for CIGNA or Blue Cr0ss: cigarettes, alcohol, new cars, house payments beyond means, or maybe they just like to eat all their meals in restaurants which in itself is a health hazard. So when they get sick and show up at the ER, who pays their bills? We The People.

Regardless, the real number of folks unable to afford insurance is small and once again, Washington liberals have separated us all into two groups--the wealthy 10% and everyone else. They refuse to admit there is still a large, functioning, independent middle-class out here. Maybe they do know we're here because apparently they are doing their best to destroy it.

We are told we just can't carry on like this by the same pe0ple who manage nothing well. The Post Office, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, WIC, Fannie, Freddie, Gennie, and the War on Poverty have all been horrible, wasteful and dreadfully expensive flops with no end. Again paid for by We The People.

What should we expect from a group of men and women who are mostly lawyers and have never had to meet a budget, hire and fire people, bring in a payroll, live up to a contract, or stand even for hours on an assembly line?

Think of something the government runs so well that you care to have it in command of your very life. Exclude in that consideration the men and women in uniform of the armed services, as they are folks motivated by unselfishness and sacrifice which is very much the opposite of what has motivated last week's vote.

It was a vote on a bill full of very un-American provisions, the worst of which requires each American to purchase health insurance or pay a large fine--administration of which falls to the Internal Revenue Service. Do they not have enough power as judge and jury as it is?

This hopefully will be the effort's undoing. Attorneys General of approaching half of the states have filed suit against this law as being patently unconstitutional. By what provision of the constitution does the Congress have authority to mandate that a citizen buy anything? If that stands, what else would they require of us?

And by the way, if I can't afford to buy health insurance how will I pay this $5000 fine? Gee, maybe the government will give me the money for both the insurance and the fine! And then, they'll figure they have to pony up for all the illegals in line behind me. Or maybe ahead of me, I don't know. We The People again.

We have thrown the baby out with the bath water. Probably if the government backed completely out of health care altogether we'd be better off. Without Medicare and Medicaid and general welfare, the market would seek it's own level and we'd know the true costs of staying healthy. Some of what truly makes medicine so expensive -- lawsuits, malpractice insurance, government intervention, insurance company regulation, and poor health habits of Americans -- remains ignored because of liberal political alliances or plain ignorance.

There is a case to be made that all of our industrial rivals such as Japan, China, and the Europeans have socialized medicine; that we have to follow suit to remain competitive in a global economy. I maintain these nations have traditionally had government care while we all have cared for ourselves and grown into the greatest industrial power the world has ever seen.

Japan rose in stature, not because their cars are cheaper but because they are good products. The cost of employee health care is built into every car Toyota builds either through the taxes the employees pay on their wages for socialized medicine or for what the employer pays, or both. The cost of American cars not much different. The customer pays one way or the other. If Japanese health care costs less per person there are many variables, aside from the simple fact that the government administers the plan. Having the government do something doesn't make it less espensive, even in Japan.

And with no insult intended toward the Japanese, what have their contributions been to modern health care? What supports research and development of new treatments and therapies in that great nation? Or in Canada, Great Britain, France, Russia, China? Americans--as usual--have lead the world in this too.

Better think twice, Mr. President. Incentive to go into medicine for our brightest people has sustained us well and wrought great things in the past 234 years. It isn't perfect but there are many obstacles to be swept from the path of affordable care without turning it all over to Uncle Sam. Too bad there wasn't an incentive for bright people to run for Congress as well and stuff this whole thing in the dumpster behind a hospital where it belongs. We The People need some help. This isn't help.