Health Care

51% of the money in health care comes from federal, state, and local government, regulations and paperwork are overflowing, and everyone is scratching their heads trying to figure out what the problem is. For goodness’ sake, open your eyes! We already have a pseudo-socialist system. We don’t need more government involvement in health care, we need LESS government. When you artificially expand the demand for goods or services, the cost goes UP.

There was a time in this country when health care was very affordable. Most everyone got it and if you couldn’t pay immediately, doctors (who used to make house calls) would work out a payment plan with you, or you could receive assistance from charities. But wait, there was a small part of the population that “needed help”. So, Congress, ignoring the Constitution, passed a small tax increase to fund the small Medicare and Medicaid programs in about 1964, and after that, the inevitable happened which has lead us here. For fifty plus years the tools added and expanded benefits (Thanks Mr. Bush) to the point where health care “entitlement” is now the most expensive item in the budget, and one that grows automatically. This thing is so out of control, it has the potential to bankrupt this country. Government has driven up the cost of health care to FIVE TIMES what it would cost in a free market, and every step of the way, the politicians have blamed the free market as the culprit and as the excuse to continuously expand government’s role.

Adjusted for inflation, seniors now pay MORE for health care than they did before Medicare!

In Canada (where they have an exclusive communist health care system), there was a front page news story in the National Post, “Allow Private Care: CMA”. The medical professional organization is clamoring for the free market to save health care in Canada.

On C-Span some years ago the House of Commons in the UK was grilling Tony Blair about the lack of nurses in their screwed up medical system which delivers poor quality at high cost. His response was that he was going to raise taxes and get more nurses.

Government doesn’t work; the free market does.

The idea posed by some that “developments in technology increases the cost of health care” is patently absurd. In other areas where technology has advanceed, costs for the end user have come DOWN.

We are in a strange quasi-socialist situation where there is really good quality but also really high cost.

What do we do?

1)  We need to get government at all levels completely out of health care.  Prices will drop like a rock to levels where everyone can afford it.

2)  The Congress should use its power to regulate interstate commerce to allow health care and insurance to be freely exchanged across state lines.  More choices mean more competition and lower costs.  The power to regulate interstate commerce was put in the Constitution for this exact purpose: to prevent one state from levying taxes on another and to promote free exchange.  They have not been using it as intended, but as an excuse to restrict free exchange and meddle in just about everything.

Then we will enjoy great health care, at a low price.

Our health is far too important to be in the hands of government.

It’s time for a house call.