Bad Medicine

The nation is currently in a grave state of unrest. At town hall meetings all across the country people are voicing their anger, frustration, and disillusionment to their elected officials. The reason for all of this turmoil is the Health Care Reform bill proposed by the White House and Congressional Democrats. Many people are upset that they may lose their present health insurance, or may need to see a different physician. Others are merely outraged that the Federal Government wants to nationalize yet another huge chunk of the private sector. The President and his minions…oops…I mean allies in Congress have been profuse in their reassurances that what they are planning will be better for everyone in the nation. They assure the public that those who oppose their plans are spreading misinformation and should be reported to the White House for immediate re-education.

The government subsidized propagandists at MSNBC and other media outlets have been decrying the people protesting these town hall meetings as being everything from racists to being astro-turfers on the payroll of large insurance companies. There have even been assaults upon these protesters by representatives of the SEIU union in Missouri. Despite the fact that the statist talking heads in the media have been practically wetting themselves in fear over these protesters, it appears that the counter-protesters are the ones who have resorted to violence.

The controversial health care plan promises that all Americans will have health insurance. As a matter of fact it mandates that all Americans MUST have health insurance. Insurance is a bit like the lottery except you pay into it with the hopes of not getting your money back. After all, if you start needing to make claims for your health insurance policy you’ve probably become sick or injured. Nobody wants that. Health insurance is socialistic by nature. All policy holders pay a certain amount of money into the system. Not everyone collects upon what they pay. As a matter of fact, the health care you might receive from your policy is usually a very small fraction of what you might have cumulatively paid. So where does the rest of the money go? It goes to cover the health care costs of those who might not be as healthy as you are (minus a significant profit margin for the insurance company).

This is the reason why many young people just entering the workforce don’t bother signing up for health insurance. At that age they feel indestructible and would rather pocket the extra cash than use it to pay for an insurance policy that they feel will be underutilized. Under the President’s new plan however, that choice is no longer an option. You MUST have insurance. If you don’t have it you are required to sign up for the plan provided by the Federal Government. There’s nothing voluntary about it. This is a bit like the mandatory retirement plan implemented by the Federal Government a few decades ago. Remember how well that worked? Social Security has been bankrupt for over forty years. Each of us still pays into it, but most of us have a private 401K plans as well. The reason for this is most people with a modicum of intelligence wouldn’t entrust their financial future to an organization that is over ten trillion dollars in debt. If Social Security worked they way it was intended the 401K plans and the Roth IRA accounts that seem so ubiquitous would be unnecessary. The fact that they are widely used is an indictment against Social Security and any other ineffectual government entitlement program.

Is health care expensive? You bet it’s expensive. Why is it so expensive? There are three underlying factors to this. They are Medicare, Medicaid, and the proliferation of medical lawsuits. Medicare and Medicaid are a form of government run health insurance. They are both as financially solvent as Social Security. There’s a reason it costs over $10,000 to stay the night in a hospital. It’s not because the rooms are particularly nice, or the staff is that well paid, or the food is that amazing. The reason it’s so expensive is that the price of everything in the medical field is hyper inflated. This is because hospital administrators know that one way or the other, the bills will get paid either by an insurance company or medicare. So the expenses get padded. The people that manufacture hospital supplies want a piece of the action, so they start overcharging for things like syringes and other disposables. All these expenses add up and the cost is passed on to anyone who pays insurance or taxes. Another factor that plays into medical expenses is liability. Malpractice suits abound in this day and age. Some of these lawsuits are legitimate, but some are underhanded ploys to obtain a ridiculously high monetary settlement. This causes liability insurance rates to rise which is yet another expense passed on to the policy holder and taxpayer.

History has a screwed-up way of repeating itself. FDR’s administration implemented the money pit we’ve come to know as Social Security. It was and still is an abject failure. Many pundits have likened President Obama to FDR for taking office during a major economic upheaval. His socialistic approach to nationalizing the nation’s economy parallels that of Roosevelt back in the 1930s. If the Federal Government nationalizes health care it will suffer the same fate of Social Security. It will be crushed by mounting debt, decreasing services, and bloated bureaucracies. Heath insurance as it stands today shows all the markings of a scam or a hustle with certain elements of the health care industry all to eager to manipulate the system to their advantage. This is why some people choose to remain uninsured and take their chances. There doesn’t appear to be any interest in Washington to reform the existing abuses that exist within the Medicare and Medicaid. Instead, they are proposing to set up a new system which would be just as easily corruptible an will likely be widely abused. Under the auspices of Uncle Sam health insurance will still be a scam. But it will be a scam controlled by lobbyists and special interests. The only difference between the two is that with the private insurance you have a choice whether or not to participate. Under the Government plan you participate…or else.