Medical Tyranny

I know it sounds silly. But my friends, who are persuaded to embrace the Liberal philosophy, repeatedly ask me, “How can Government run healthcare possibly intrude upon freedoms?” It sounds really neat to not having to worry about medical costs, so why isn’t that a good thing?

Snow White thought that eating the delicious looking apple was a good idea. This time however, the apple won’t put us to sleep, but establish control over our existence. Once the Government controls the healthcare industry, our healthcare will be up for grabs, controlled by every special interest group that gets in power.

Think about it for a moment – in this country we have the vegetarians, the anti-sugar crowd, the anti-pork people, and the fat police. Just to name a few of the groups that have decided that their way is the way to health and long life. Once medical care is centralized, you would lose your ability to choose the lifestyle you prefer because that lifestyle may run afoul of your getting the necessary treatment needed. Admittedly, some lifestyles are unhealthy and require considerable medical treatment. But all things have to be weighed on a balance – take obesity or getting fat if you will.

If it is decided that the fast food industry is the root cause of obesity, could you not cure obesity by just closing down all fast food restaurants? And while we’re pushing a bit of hyperbole, there are a lot of things that cost society tons of money – cars for instance. Cars do not slowly kill us like being fat does, but cars do inflict billions in property damage and medical cost on our society. I will not even mention the forty to fifty thousand people killed outright from car collisions every year. So should we outlaw the automobile? And while we’re at it, let us not leave out – getting old. The single largest medical cost to our society is taking care of our older population.

It is evident that by closing down the fast food system, doing away with cars and allowing the elderly to expire from lack of healthcare would drastically save us a lot of money. But – would we want to live in such a society? We could not afford the job loss from losing those industries.

The fast food industry alone hires most of our unskilled and entry level people. Would losing those jobs make any sense? Everybody doesn’t get fat that uses fast food restaurants! But if the fat police ever got one of their own into the decision making bodies for healthcare, it could become a possibility.

Should we ever decide that we will not extend the help needed by the obese among us, those folks would die prematurely. Obese people need diet education and intervention, lap bands or other type of bariatric surgery to enable them to live as long and healthy a life as possible. Ancillary care to treat their diabetes, high blood pressure and clogged arteries is also expensive. Washington would literally be deciding the fate of those individuals. But, the sword cuts two ways. If we decide that we will support those who are obese with the National health plan, then the cost would be prohibitive and provide no incentive for a person to adapt a healthier lifestyle. With a nationalized health system, decisions would have to be made as to what treatments are paid for. It would not be possible to make those decisions on a case-by-case basis, but would instead be controlled by guidelines. Those guidelines, out of necessity, would have to favor lower cost. It is a little like the argument for guns or butter.

What those guidelines would look like, I can’t even guess. But it is certain that cost will have to be a large factor. Will the elderly bear the brunt of health savings? Would age be a prominent part of the treatment decisions? This article is not written to favor the elderly, but the elderly make up the largest group in need of health care.

Logically, most of the elderly are retired and pay little into the health care system so it is those of a working age who will have to shoulder the load for elderly health care.

In the grand scheme of things, the government can subsidize healthcare as long as it gets the money from somewhere to do it. That means everybody will have to contribute into the system – not just the rich. Such an added expense to the business world and individuals may be the straw that chases what is left of our manufacturing base out of the country. The cost of providing government provided health care is not for free and can only lead to a national debt far in excess of what we can afford.

It is for that reason that so much of the cost savings will have to come from limiting freedoms that we take for granted – such as eating at fast food restaurants, or at the very least mandating the type of food served at those places. Government intervention, will out of necessity, have to be pervasive to control cost and be able to provide treatment to some degree.

When the medical debate started, it was my hope that congress would fix the bad and leave the good. I define the bad as those things that are driving the cost of health care such as doctors having to protect themselves against unnecessary lawsuits by ordering unnecessary test and treatments. And they could force the insurance companies into competing for customers by allowing them to sell their policies across state lines just as they compete for customers of automobile insurance on television. The congress already knows about the corruption, but there is no movement to put the perpetrators in jail. A pertinent question could be asked about why we are not already going after the bums that corrupt the system. Do we really need more legislation to enforce the laws already on the books? This congress seems Hell bent on a complete takeover of the medical system instead of fixing what is wrong with it.

Also not mentioned in the proposed legislation is any incentive to increase the supply of doctors. Even with insurance, a patient has to wait up to three weeks (or longer) to schedule an appointment. There is already a shortage of doctors – can you imagine what it will be like with an additional 30 million people trying to get appointments. Further, the same people who have just had their waiting time increased are going to be forced to pay for the ones who do not see medical insurance as an expense that they want to spend money on. However, you will notice that somehow these same people manage to drive nice cars and own wide screen televisions and other consumer goods like fancy cell phones.

Freedom to live your life as a free person will take a step backwards if the congress has their way. It is ironic, but the congress could make things better for all of us with some simple legislation, but evidently, that is not their goal. They want to reserve the right to dictate how you will live your daily life by controlling which treatments you need. Think of the society as a herd of cattle being marched through a cattle chute with no other direction possible. Say no to this debacle before it becomes law.

Cheers,

-Robert-

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