Health Care Reform
The health care reform currently on the table is so wrong, on so many levels, that the best fix for the 1000+ pages is a good bonfire. If you want a good discussion about the why’s and wherefore’s I suggest the audio recorded by Ronald Reagan in 1961 – socialized medicine is just as wrong today as it was then, and for all the same reasons.
To lift another quote from the Gipper, “Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem.” Too much regulation, too much red tape, too much Medicare and Medicaid, not to mention the newly-minted Medicare Part D – signed into law by a supposedly conservative President.
You may get tired of hearing it, but under which of the delineated powers that the Constitution grants to the federal government do they have the right to levy taxes or pay benefits for these programs? You know the answer, unless you subscribe the socialist re-write that says everything under the sun is granted by the “general welfare” wording.
The only (Constitutionally granted) power the government has to regulate insurance or medical practice is given through the regulation of interstate commerce in Article I, Section 8.
Here’s my solution to health care reform: Dismantle the federal bureaucracies and watch the free market perform. Disband the Department of Health and Human Services. Keep only the portions of the FDA and the CDC that are a legitimate “common defense” and “general welfare” instrument.
Let the states regulate the insurance and medical industries within their borders. They can even adopt socialized medicine on a state-by-state basis, as Massachusetts has. (Though I doubt many other states would be interested in repeating that failed experiment.) Let each state do what its people think best, and you will have 50 individual experiments to find the best solutions, instead of one more huge federal bureaucracy.
On the economic side, its proponents say that ObamaCare (or is it KennedyCare this week?) will get rid of the waste and inefficiencies in the system. But show me the last government program that is a model of efficiency.
The Washington socialists want to do the largest collectivization experiment in history, on the most successful and beneficial medical sector the world has ever seen.
Along with nationalizing 1/7 of the economy, this power grab will undoubtedly destroy the creativity and ingenuity of our pharmaceutical industry. Have you ever stopped to think that the huge profits seen by drug companies are the only reason they are willing to expend the time, money, and talent needed to discover and produce the amazing array of modern medicines?
This socialization would also wreck havoc on the quality of care by limiting the wages of doctors, nurse, pharmacists, etc. We haven’t even begun to consider the ramifications of the inevitable rationing of care, to reserve the scarce program resources for the most vital and necessary (or should I say progressive) members of society.
Unless we’re asking a very stupid question, the health care reform measures on the table right now are not the answer. And no, Mr. Senator, we most fundamentally do NOT want the same thing the Democrats do here.
The right candidate for U.S. Representative from the Second District will stand four-square against ANY nationalization scheme, and for the dismantling of the current unconstitutional government forays into healthcare and insurance.
