Health Care/Insurance Reform

Why should government or businesses provide health care or retirement benefits at all?

Think of Social Security: it began after the Great Depression as a way to provide for people so that such a situation would not happen again. People had not been saving for their own retirement/rainy day and when the Great Depression hit, people were in deep trouble.

The government reasoned that people would not save for their own retirement. Something could come along in their lives and they would have to spend the money before retirement. So, the government instituted a mandated savings program that would take money from workers directly, before the workers even saw it. The idea was that they (the government) would mandate the saving of the workers’ money, and that would solve the problem. So, they did.

But somewhere along the line, the government decided that it needed that money for something else, took it and gave SS some i.o.u.’s When they took the money, they redesigned SS as a ponzi scheme by making payments with the money that was coming in, rather than saving it. And now, when the money is needed for the baby boomers who have contributed to it all their lives, there will be no money left.

The government did exactly what it feared that people would do — spend their retirement before they retired. This, then, disproves the idea that the government can do what individuals can’t do — save their own money.

If I try to save my own money, but don’t, it’s a tragedy. But when the government (or anyone) takes my money by force and promises to give it back, but can’t, it’s theft. And any court would make the same judgment.

Regarding health care reform, which is actually health insurance reform: The problem isn’t that some people don’t have insurance. The real problem is the skyrocketing cost of health services. (We could add that much, much of that skyrocketing cost is associated with litigation and the fear of litigation [which is the definition of extortion], but that would take us in another direction.)

Hospitals blame the spiraling costs on the poor, who use hospitals as doctor’s offices. So, the poorest people use the best care for nothing, and the cost is passed on to others. Why can’t hospitals just stop that practice? I’m not suggesting that the poor get no care, but that they get some other kind of care, some less expensive kind of help.

Drug companies — don’t get me started! — charge exorbitant prices, citing the cost for R&D. But what is also going on is that the R&D folks are developing designer drugs for every possible complaint that people can think of. And then telling hypochondriacs to ask their doctors for the meds they want. Public pharmaceutical advertising is a complete breach of professional ethics. They are simply going around the gatekeepers (doctors) by soliciting to the inmates (patients). Can they not see the blazoned hypocrisy of this tact?

So, let me know if you want to know what I really think. 🙂