A Few Scrambled Thoughts on the Health Care Debate

I have a few thoughts on the debate process that we find ourselves in concerning health care.

First of all, I think initially we needed a lot less salesmanship from the government for a plan that admittedly members of Congress could not possibly have read, and think it is dumb to expect them to. To vote on something that has not been read is stupid especially when staffers have the occasional habit of tossing something into a bill that has not been fully considered.

Secondly, I think that our elected officials need to field all questions from people that are concerned about health care. Too many town hall meetings and press conferences were being staged for the purpose of ramrodding legislation down the throats of silenced constituents. Screened questions from hand chosen questioners were being used as tools to help advance the vision of socialist health care that is being demanded by the president. When you turn your back on the valid concerns of honest people you can expect to create upset honest people.

Thirdly, when people become upset because they are being ignored, it is patently stupid to vilify and mischaracterize those who are upset. This is exactly what people like Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and John Dingell are doing. Anyone that disagrees with these measures are now "evil mongers" if you listen to Harry Reid. Evil? Come on Harry, a person not following your lead does not make that person evil, it just makes him a bit distrustful of a sniveling hatchet man that has proven his loyalty to constituents can be easily compromised by campaign payoffs and land deals that benefit his cherubs.

Now those that have legitimate worries about rationed care, government intrusion into private lives and end of life decisions, reductions in new medicines and equipment, the advance of socialism, etc., are being called unAmerican, evil mongers, and Nazis. Ya, that ought to bring them around.

Not all Americans that are scared of the Obama vision of health care reform are against health care reform. I would like to see many changes made to the system. That makes me pro-reform not anti-reform. Obama and company seem to have decided that reform can only mean what their vision of reform is. I ain't no linguist but I ain't no idiot neither. I refuse to be told that I am something that I am not.

I would like to see tort reform that would allow for doctors to practice less defensive medicine and would allow skyrocketing malpractice insurance rates to fall. While that would not in and of itself reduce rates to an affordable level for most of us, it would be a good 10% start. I would like to see medicines and equipment come to market with less than a multibillion dollar price tag--astronomical pricing that is necessitated by crippling regulation. These government mandated cost structures are the biggest systemic impediments we have to increased competition in the pharmaceutical field today. Everyone hates big pharma, but there can be no other kind under current regulations.

I would love to see the taxpayers not be responsible for all of the health care needs of people who illegally infiltrate our borders. This adds billions and billions of dollars to our annual health care costs, and the only way for this money to be accounted for is through increased costs to those that can and will pay higher bills.

Is there waste in the current system? You can be certain. I would venture that most of this waste is being caused by our government's presence within the health care industry and not by any absence. That is why I find it more than a little troubling that the solution being suggested by our overlords for this waste is that the government should become even more involved in our health care system.

Fox in the hen house and all that.

For my part, I wish that town hall meetings could be what they are designed to be. I want them to neither be a staged propaganda event nor a cage match. I would prefer more listening and less talking, more calm and less noise. In the absence of both, however, I prefer the noise. At least this way both sides understand exactly what the other side is thinking.