The Health Care Debate (A Plea for Sanity)
Well, I have been debating what to write about after taking the past month off, something personal, something funny, something political? I went back and forth for several days, kind of working on all 3 ideas at the same time. I would simply see which one allowed itself to be completed first. And the winner is, my shout out on why Congress and Barrack Obama need to stay the hell away from our health care system.
Is our current health care system perfect? Nope. Is it the best in the world? Yep. Can it be improved? Sure. Can the government design and run a better health care system? Only if you think we have an overpopulation problem and we need to be killing off a few thousand people a day.
What is the real problem with health care? Well, the most talked about problem on the Network news is the millions of people out there without insurance. So, how to fix the problem? If you vote Democratic, apparently the solution is to throw out our current system, and let the government run things, like they do in Great Britain and Canada. That way everyone can get access to health care.
Lets see, there are 250 million people in America and the government says roughly 50 million don't have health care coverage. So, lets trash the system we have for 200 million people, the top flight health care system people from Great Britain and Canada (and Japan, and nearly every other country of the world) come to America to utilize, and replace it with something like VA hospitals at best, and third-rate health care like in Great Britain at worst.
Yes, let the same US government which runs the VA hospitals design a national health care plan. Let’s create government run hospitals like Walter Reed, the Army’s TOP health care facility in the country, which was cited in 2007 for putting wounded veterans recovering in rooms where the walls were falling down and covered in mold.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/17/AR2007021701172.html
There are plenty of other examples too. The same government which still has victims of HurricaneKatrina living in trailer camps, four YEARS after the hurricane? The same government that takes care of our National Parks? They do such a great job there are actors all over the radio and television decrying the fact our national parks have fallen into disrepair and are facing a crisis.
Look, I work for the government, and there is a definite role for the government to play in our society. Police, Firefighters, roads, urban planning, education and oversight of many professions to name a few for sure. Having people similar to those at the DMV, the IRS or deciding whether or not your mother can have that knee replacement so she might walk again, or your child might have that bone marrow transplant to try and beat leukemia?
They may decide the answer is no.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/women-denied-anticancer-drugs-nhs-skimping-on-cancer-drugs-1241685.html
So, instead of a medical school educated doctor making the key decision to possibly save your child's life, or your mother's life, you are instead wanting to empower someone who sits behind a desk answering telephones in a government office?
Notice I have not even yet addressed the issue of cost. You see, contrary to Congressional thinking, money does not actually grow on trees (heck if it did we would ALL be tree huggers). Someone will have to pay for this system. We are already a nation in severe debt. Every American citizen is on the hook for $46,000 right now, and by the end of Barrack Obama's first term, his own projections have the debt increasing to nearly $64,000 per citizen, and that is WITHOUT adding the cost of a state run health care system.
And, as the article above shows, cost will play a role. So, now we get to assign a dollar value to every life. Is your 75-year old mother with diabetes worth $8000 a year for medication, or should we spend that $8K on getting a 40-year old construction worker his cancer medication because he will get back to work and provide a good or service for the country for another 25-30 years? Sorry Mom. Think it won’t happen? Read the UK article again, because it already is.
Wake up people! You feel guilty because you have insurance and others don’t? Fine. Let’s solve the actual problem at hand: Covering the uninsured.
Hmmm, if only there were a way people could contribute to a cause, and someone would oversee the donations and see those in need got it. Oh wait, we have something like that, they are called Charities.
Okay, that probably won’t work, not enough people will contribute. So let’s force them. We will make it mandatory. (sorry, I was channeling my inner congressman).
Seriously, if the government wants to solve the “health care crisis”, rather the problem of so many uninsured citizens, then why don’t you figure out a way to cover them? In Florida, the legislature found a way to offer insurance to the 3.8 uninsured Floridians. http://www.coverfloridahealthcare.com
So, see there actually are good ideas out there to solve this problem. They do not involve plunging our grandchildren into more debt, stripping the currently covered 200 million Americans of their current health care coverage so a bureaucrat in Wheeling, WV can decide if your treatment plan fits into the government's plans, and there is even a chance we might IMPROVE the health care coverage we all get today.
Let's at least try to solve the defined problem and not simply hand over more of our personal freedoms to an already bloated government.
I have simply addressed a few of the key points in this debate. I left out the fact of fewer doctors if the government takes over health care (how many people do you know of going to college so they can work for the government? and the fact we are already seeing a decrease in doctors in the US today). I skipped past the real depth of the total cost issue (citing the projected cost of the system and our inability to pay for it).
I would love to hear what some of the medical professionals today think about this topic. They probably have some interesting ideas to solve this problem too.
I have at least expressed my opinion. My congressman and senators will be getting a copy of this blog, and a politely worded note explaining they need to quit creating mountains out of molehills, and focus on the ACTUAL problem at hand. I hope everyone will make their voices heard, and there won't be millions of parrots out there just spouting what the sorry excuse for journalism today tells them to say.
This is going to lead into my next blog I think, the role of guilt and indifference in the American political landscape. But for now, I will simply say thanks for your time and attention. I hope I gave you something to ponder.
Is our current health care system perfect? Nope. Is it the best in the world? Yep. Can it be improved? Sure. Can the government design and run a better health care system? Only if you think we have an overpopulation problem and we need to be killing off a few thousand people a day.
What is the real problem with health care? Well, the most talked about problem on the Network news is the millions of people out there without insurance. So, how to fix the problem? If you vote Democratic, apparently the solution is to throw out our current system, and let the government run things, like they do in Great Britain and Canada. That way everyone can get access to health care.
Lets see, there are 250 million people in America and the government says roughly 50 million don't have health care coverage. So, lets trash the system we have for 200 million people, the top flight health care system people from Great Britain and Canada (and Japan, and nearly every other country of the world) come to America to utilize, and replace it with something like VA hospitals at best, and third-rate health care like in Great Britain at worst.
Yes, let the same US government which runs the VA hospitals design a national health care plan. Let’s create government run hospitals like Walter Reed, the Army’s TOP health care facility in the country, which was cited in 2007 for putting wounded veterans recovering in rooms where the walls were falling down and covered in mold.
http://www.washingtonpost.
There are plenty of other examples too. The same government which still has victims of HurricaneKatrina living in trailer camps, four YEARS after the hurricane? The same government that takes care of our National Parks? They do such a great job there are actors all over the radio and television decrying the fact our national parks have fallen into disrepair and are facing a crisis.
Look, I work for the government, and there is a definite role for the government to play in our society. Police, Firefighters, roads, urban planning, education and oversight of many professions to name a few for sure. Having people similar to those at the DMV, the IRS or
They may decide the answer is no.
http://www.independent.co.
So, instead of a medical school educated doctor making the key decision to possibly save your child's life, or your mother's life, you are instead wanting to empower someone who sits behind a desk answering telephones in a government office?
Notice I have not even yet addressed the issue of cost. You see, contrary to Congressional thinking, money does not actually grow on trees (heck if it did we would ALL be tree huggers). Someone will have to pay for this system. We are already a nation in severe debt. Every American citizen is on the hook for $46,000 right now, and by the end of Barrack Obama's first term, his own projections have the debt increasing to nearly $64,000 per citizen, and that is WITHOUT adding the cost of a state run health care system.
And, as the article above shows, cost will play a role. So, now we get to assign a dollar value to every life. Is your 75-year old mother with diabetes worth $8000 a year for medication, or should we spend that $8K on getting a 40-year old construction worker his cancer medication because he will get back to work and provide a good or service for the country for another 25-30 years? Sorry Mom. Think it won’t happen? Read the UK article again, because it already is.
Wake up people! You feel guilty because you have insurance and others don’t? Fine. Let’s solve the actual problem at hand: Covering the uninsured.
Hmmm, if only there were a way people could contribute to a cause, and someone would oversee the donations and see those in need got it. Oh wait, we have something like that, they are called Charities.
Okay, that probably won’t work, not enough people will contribute. So let’s force them. We will make it mandatory. (sorry, I was channeling my inner congressman).
Seriously, if the government wants to solve the “health care crisis”, rather the problem of so many uninsured citizens, then why don’t you figure out a way to cover them? In Florida, the legislature found a way to offer insurance to the 3.8 uninsured Floridians. http://www.coverfloridahea
So, see there actually are good ideas out there to solve this problem. They do not involve plunging our grandchildren into more debt, stripping the currently covered 200 million Americans of their current health care coverage so a bureaucrat in Wheeling, WV can decide if your treatment plan fits into the government's plans, and there is even a chance we might IMPROVE the health care coverage we all get today.
Let's at least try to solve the defined problem and not simply hand over more of our personal freedoms to an already bloated government.
I have simply addressed a few of the key points in this debate. I left out the fact of fewer doctors if the government takes over health care (how many people do you know of going to college so they can work for the government? and the fact we are already seeing a decrease in doctors in the US today). I skipped past the real depth of the total cost issue (citing the projected cost of the system and our inability to pay for it).
I would love to hear what some of the medical professionals today think about this topic. They probably have some interesting ideas to solve this problem too.
I have at least expressed my opinion. My congressman and senators will be getting a copy of this blog, and a politely worded note explaining they need to quit creating mountains out of molehills, and focus on the ACTUAL problem at hand. I hope everyone will make their voices heard, and there won't be millions of parrots out there just spouting what the sorry excuse for journalism today tells them to say.
This is going to lead into my next blog I think, the role of guilt and indifference in the American political landscape. But for now, I will simply say thanks for your time and attention. I hope I gave you something to ponder.
Comments
Post a Comment