Why?

The president wants his government to take over the health care industry and he says it must be done before the August recess of congress. Why, one wonders, should something that is going to so profoundly change the fabric of this country, be rammed through congress to meet an arbitrary deadline set by the president? Neither he nor the congress will turn into pumpkins if the measure isn’t passed by the deadline. Perhaps he realizes that when members of congress return home, they will hear from their constituents that a government take-over of health care is not the least bit popular and that the honorable member’s continued tenure in congress is on the line should they vote for this monstrous bankrupting power grab. And too, Obama likely fears that our representatives and senators might utilize their time away from their grueling three-day work week in Washington to actually read this bill. One can only hope. 

The phrase I hear over and over is “there are 46 million people in this country without health insurance.”  They aren’t talking about health care; they are only talking about insurance. These are two entirely different things. The law requires medical facilities to treat everyone who needs it, regardless of their financial situation. Apart from the perpetually poor and the parasites, some people don’t have insurance because they don’t think they need it. Young people generally think that they’re bulletproof and regard health insurance as something for “old people”—something they’ll worry about later. By the way, about a quarter of  those 46 million are illegal aliens.

“The people,” we are assured, are demanding change. They want health care reform. They think the cost of their health care is outrageous. But as someone famous once said “If you think it’s expensive now, wait until it’s free.”  The reason it costs so much now is because those who are doing the paying are also paying for those without insurance, and those who are here illegally. This plan the president is pushing isn’t going to make it any cheaper, even though he says it will. We will have the same situation we already have but there will be tens of thousands of new federal bureaucrats hired to administer the new plan. They are probably those new jobs the president promised to create. Claiming that this new way will save money makes absolutely no sense. Most of the 46 million people the president wants to insure have no money and pay no income tax. The money to finance this fiasco must come from somewhere. Sticking it to the “rich” won’t bring in enough revenue to make it work and it won’t pay for the army of new bureaucrats he envisions to administer this nightmare.  

Those of you old enough to remember might recall a time when almost no one had health insurance. You could afford to visit your doctor or spend a week in the hospital. Hospitals were community or religious institutions. When Medicare came along, so did the financial crap shooters. Corporations bought out existing hospitals or simply built new ones. When the government is paying, the price of everything goes up. That’s because it isn’t the government’s money—it’s ours. 

A couple of years ago I was sick and the doctor told me to get to the hospital immediately. My daughter called for an ambulance. After I crawled in, I told them I needed oxygen. That had to wait until they found out whether I had insurance or not; they filled out a few forms and called the hospital. Finally they gave me the oxygen and headed for the Sherman hospital, 17 miles away. When I got the bill, I needed oxygen again. They charged me nearly $4000, which was mostly covered by insurance. Even so, my out of pocket cost was almost $800. I’m certain that the main reason they stuck it to me for that outrageous amount was because I had insurance. I was making up for those who either couldn’t pay or whose coverage wouldn’t pay that much. This sort of thing is what’s wrong with health care. 

A government take-over and the resulting tax increases on everyone who has a job isn’t going to control costs, it can only increase them. But that isn’t the objective of Obama health care. He wants to make medical care another entitlement for the people he has always championed and organized. This is nothing more than another welfare scheme that will be paid for by the productive. If real health care reform is the objective, then it needs to be carefully considered and fully thought out; not rammed through congress—unread and in the middle of the night.