I observed the following on the Comcast.net forums:
From someone called “Nullhumanoid”: "Why do you want our health care to fail? Please explain the logic behind it.”
From “Betterdaysahead”: "Yeah, that’s why the American Medical Association has been so supportive of reform efforts. And why so many surveys of physicians have shown that they view the current system as broken and unsustainable.”
From “Professor_Chaos”: “Medicare is not handled badly. That a silly Republican talking point. Try and find a senior willing to give it up. You can’t.”
Talk about “talking points”. Do you see how shallow and simple-minded these people are? They don’t have a clue how weak their points are. But, in case you don’t see it, let me walk you through them. In response to Nullhumanoid’s cliché’d argument, we conservatives DON’T want our health care SYSTEM to fail. What we do want to fail is the socialized health care that the progressives are shoving down our throats. Clearly there are a number of problems, but almost all of those problems stem from the COST issue. In fact, we wouldn’t need insurance at all if the costs were reasonable. And even to THAT point, the idea of “reasonable” is up for debate. When a doctor finally gets his/her license, do you have any idea the total expense that has been accumulated in the process? Apply that same question to any other professional field. I am a scuba instructor. By comparison, the cost to reach this certification has been small, but it has still been in the thousands of dollars to get here. Just to actually start up the business of teaching—purchasing training gear, compressor, training materials, diving and liability insurance, professional fees—also cost in the thousands. Add to that the exorbitant taxes, etc., the government confiscates, and I totally sympathize with doctors and others in the medical field. How much do you think a doctor, for example, should charge to begin to recoup the costs, pay current operating expenses (location, employees, equipment, insurance, etc.) and maintain a reasonable salary? Hmm?
What people like the above are saying is that the government knows better what that should look like. What right does the government have? What this health care bill strives to do is CLAIM to reduce COST, but in fact is only reducing the PRICE. The COSTS aren’t affected. It’s a little trick called “Price Controls”. Professor_Chaos claims Medicare isn’t handled badly. Well, of COURSE it is! First off, it’s an entitlement, which automatically makes it a bad thing. Second, it is based on price controls. Ask any physician what they think of what they receive to treat those on Medicare. Most of them can’t make a living off it. So, where to they supplement this measly compensation? Higher prices in other services. And, again, the ignorance of Professor_Chaos’ argument “find a senior willing to give it up” should be obvious. Once you hook people on an entitlement, regardless of how horrible, they almost never want to give it up. Which is WHY we must fight this health care bill so vehemently. Once it’s passed and people are stuck on it you will find it impossible to repeal it.
As for Betterdaysahead’s sophomoric attempt at an argument, the fact is that we ALL are supporting some sort of reform. We all agree that the current system is broken, though whether it is “unsustainable” is still debatable. The ISSUE is to get to the real problem: COST. Look at homeowner’s insurance. First, you aren’t required by the federal government to have homeowner’s insurance. Show me anyone who has homeowner’s insurance when they don’t own a home. And, in fact, if you own your home outright, you don’t have to have homeowner’s insurance then, either. But ask yourself: Why do you have homeowner’s insurance? Do you pay for every little thing you do to your home via an insurance claim? I sure don’t. We had nearly our entire roof rebuilt and didn’t try to claim it on insurance. You know what I have my insurance for? Those catastrophic events that would normally be beyond most folks’ capacity to pay for at once. And when I do need to do maintenance on my home and I’m paying out of pocket for it, what do you think I do? I SHOP AROUND. Most people who bother to actually talk with their health care providers usually are able to avoid paying for procedures or treatments unless they’re truly needed. They usually avoid paying for the high-end versions of medicines in favor of generic brands or different medicines altogether.
But all of this goes back to the cost of doing business. It is just plain stupid to ignore the real root cause of the cost issue and just focus on enslaving all Americans to a “single-payer system” that the government owns, creating yet more government agencies and government employees to waste our tax dollars.
One last piece, one that I have brought up before and will continue to. Health care is not a right. The poorest of the poor always have ACCESS to treatment when it’s really needed. They can’t be turned away. But ultimately you do not have the right to demand that a person be a doctor. You do not have the right to demand that a doctor treat you when you want. Being a doctor or nurse or hospital worker is a profession, a job. You have no more right to health care than you do to being trained to scuba dive. They are SERVICES that we CHOOSE to provide. If I choose to only teach six students once every year, that is my choice. If a doctor only chooses to see patients one day a week, same thing. If we have no other way to produce income, then we must logically choose to establish availability of services and rates we charge for those services that makes it worth our time and investment. If I charge more than someone in San Antonio for scuba training, you have the right to shop around. I’ll either find a way to cut my costs or go out of business. We need to find out why it costs so much for health care to be provided. Conservatives have already started to look at some of that, and even some liberals have. NONE have done a lot of true root cause analysis. I can promise you the progressives have not. But ask a doctor what his/her biggest expenses are that he/she has to cover. Then you might have a starting point.
Solving our broken system requires you to be much less shallow and lazy than the people I quoted above. And get off the entitlement mindset….you aren’t entitled to squat.
