Is Government Health Care Plan Effective or a Mess?

Currently 18% of our GDP is dedicated to health care costs. These will soar according to the President’s economic advisor to astronomical levels in the near future. We must stop the growth in spending now. We can agree with that. Thus, the White House argues that we must do something by the end of the year. Chris Romer calls health care spending a mess. It’s been a mess for years. Why do we need to cure it by year’s end? Simple: politics. The Democrats in the Congress have the numbers to do things. The White House and its advisors don’t want to let any the crisis situation we live in now to get away without completing their agenda. That agenda is national health care run by, paid for and dictated by the government. The plan is to have government health insurance competing directly with private insurance. Nothing less will satisfy them.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (June 3) in an editorial asks what’s the hurry? Why can’t we take time to look at all the possible programs and talk about it? Debate should not be hurried. Remember the TARP program. The government, rightly or wrongly, came to us and Congress crying the sky was falling. We quickly passed the bill. Was that a mistake? No real debate or thought went into it. Remember the bill was so thick in pages that no one could have read it over night? That was all the time they got. We need to slow down here. Health care is now 18% of our GDP. Whoa. LBJ said during the Vietnam War: “Let us reason together.”

We are already in over our heads in debt. 11.3 trillion dollars now. The Democratic health bill will raise that. The cost is a 13 figure number in dollars we don’t have. Our kids don’t have it. Our grand kids don’t have it.

The medical professionals, hospitals, pharmacists, nurses and drug makers and other health care groups are shell shocked. The Democrats are smooth talkers. They got these professionals to agree with their 1.5% slowing over ten years. But upon a second look, the health care folks see it can’t be done. In addition, they have been bamboozled into thinking that reform is coming right now so get on the train or it will run you over. Not so, we must slow down the train. Too much is at stake here. The reform is supposed to save money for a family of four once enacted, so says Romer. But that is pie in the sky. How many times are nonsensical such estimates made by our government leaders?

I for one do not want a government running my health care. Look at the Post Office and Medicare for examples of how good a job they do. Maybe, ERs will need to close on Saturdays like the Post Office is considering doing. In the Post Office that is limiting services, in health care I think we call it rationing. Don’t get sick or try to mail anything on Saturday.