The Stout Republican

Healthcare

Healthcare

The CES pictures will come, I’m just lazy right now.

But…in a “while I’m thinking about it” act of randomness…

Republicans always get slammed with the idea of over-simplifying things…that the world is a complex amalgam of issues, and feeling, and blah blah blah. But you know what seems like the most simple thinking of all to me? Let the government do it.

I don’t want to think about how to effectively handle my own health care. Let the government do it.

I don’t want to shop around for doctors and find the one I like the most at the best price. Let the government do it.

I don’t want to deal with price hunting various medications to find the drug store that sells the generic form for cheaper. Let the government do it.

I don’t want to deal with putting together a retirement package for myself and planning my own future. Let the government do it.

It seems that the Liberal mindset for dealing with “complex” issues, is to say how complex they are, and then put the decisions that directly affect their own wellbeing and family into the hands of a few career politicians. Seems like the thoughtful way to deal with these issues is, well…to think about them and deal with them yourself, instead of passing that responsibility on to others.

That’s why liberals love higher taxes (as long as it’s not their taxes, but the “rich” taxes)…peace of mind from thinking, at the expense of other people’s money. Why not?

Imagine how much electricity or gas or water we would conserve, if we didn’t have to pay for it. Imagine how expensive it would be for the taxpayer if the cost of running someone’s air conditioning 24-7 just so you can be at that comfortable 75 degrees was passed on to the government? We sure love to consume when we don’t have to pay. Why do we think that healthcare will be any different?

If your child gets a cough…nothing serious, just a cough, and you have to pay for it…are you more or less likely to rush to the emergency room and fork out $500? You’d probably wait a day or two (as we have for hundred of years) to see what happens before tearing ass to the ER. Now what if you didn’t have to foot that $500. What if it was free? You think ERs have problems now? You think the overall cost of the health industry is expensive now? What if there was no incentive for doctors to prescribe generic drugs because cost doesn’t matter? What if there’s forced generic drugs because government says cheaper is better….then what happens to the incentive for new companies to create new drugs, if their patents are going to be gobbled up by people who can take their R & D for free, and just make a copy…off of their millions in research?

Simplicity and stupidity to me is “let the government handle it”…simply because the people don’t have the will to think it out themselves.

Healthcare

Does free mean better? Not usually.

Ignoring the fact I’m Canadian, and have been in the system (as most single payer healthcare system advocates ignore that I’m Canadian), this short documentary sums up the problems.

Take a number. Get in line. Wait your turn. But at least you don’t have to pay right? So explain to me how Canada is better…keeping in mind I’ve had health and emergency care in Canada, as a citizen.

Healthcare

From the Business and Media Institute:

Government statistics also show 45 percent of those without insurance will have insurance again within four months after job transitions.

Accounting for all those factors, one prominent study places the total for the long-term uninsured as low as 8.2 million – a very different reality than the media and national health care advocates claim.

I throw that out there just to incite…but my real point if more allowing the idea of health care in general.

Health Insurance is expensive…whether it be through a private provider, the workplace, or the bloated government. You’re either paying several hundred for your family out of your pocket to a private provider of your choice…or several hundred out of taxes to a provider that you can’t choose.

I currently have no health care. I’m okay with that. I choose to not have health care, along with many other millions in the United States.

But according to the same Census report, there are 8.3 million uninsured people who make between $50,000 and $74,999 per year and 8.74 million who make more than $75,000 a year. That’s roughly 17 million people who ought to be able to “afford” health insurance because they make substantially more than the median household income of $46,326.

If I choose to have health care, as I will in a few months when my benefits kick in, I will pay for them accordingly out of my paycheck…however, I see no benefit right now. If I need emergency services, I won’t be turned away, and there’s always clinics that are inexpensive for the flu, fevers, etc. If I get into a car accident, I have car insurance that I pay extra for to cover medical. If I have an emergency, I’m willing to pay for it out of my pocket. That’s my choice. Now explain to me why someone else’s taxes should pay for my health care…if I don’t want it…or better yet, how my taxes will pay for a government run bureaucracy (one with which I’ll have limited recourse if they screw up), when I don’t want to pay for such an overfed system.

There are very few government programs I trust. The military is one. The department of education is not…the welfare system is not…the freaking postal service is not.

So, right now, because of my choices, I’m a pawn to be used by congressmen and women who want to warp statistics to make their programs. Somewhere a drug company loves the idea of a big fat non-compete no bid contract that they’ll be able to make with the fat cat medical system, run and paid for by the government… because nothing drives up prices… like competition? Imagine medical companies having to lobby congress just to get their contracts. Why, who needs the consumer to choose, when all you have to do is donate to a political machine to get you’re drugs out there.

Hey, we might not have real competition in the community to drives innovativeness or new drugs and treatments. We might have our health care decided by politicians and not doctors. But at least it will be cheap.

Healthcare

John Edwards wants to fund a new socialized health care program. My “Open Question” to those left minded people concerns government legislated redistribution of wealth.

Democratic U.S. presidential candidate John Edwards on Sunday said that he would raise taxes, chiefly on the wealthy, to pay for expanded healthcare coverage under a plan costing $90 billion to $120 billion a year to be unveiled on Monday.

“We’ll have to raise taxes. The only way you can pay for a healthcare plan that cost anywhere from $90 to $120 billion is there has to be a revenue source,” Edwards said on NBC’s Meet the Press news program.

If I work hard, earn money, and pay for healthcare through my company (mine costs about 200 a month for me and my wife), why should my tax dollars pay for the healthcare of the children of others…when my tax dollars don’t even pay for my own?

Is this redistribution based on “fairness” of the system?

Why is it my responsibility as someone who pays for my healthcare, to pay for someone else who doesn’t?

Are we setting up systems that encourage people to not better themselves (such as welfare, subsidized housing, free medical care) because if they earn more, then they will no longer qualify for entitlement programs?

Is encouraging people to rely on the government for everything, making them less able to provide for themselves?

You know my thoughts on the issue. People on the left and the right…let’s hear yours?

Healthcare, Social Issues

I know it ought not surprise me, but when I hear of a “conservative” batting for the other team (take from that what you will), I am somehow taken off guard, like it has never happened before.  So you can imagine my surprise when I hear about our Great Governor Fence Rider’s (pun intended) next conquest: healthcare.  The article claims that the US spends $100 BILLION a year on uninsured healthcare costs.

Nowhere did I find Schwarzenegger’s plan to tackle this issue.  All I found were the hot terms “reform” and “fix”.  He did however refer to a “hidden tax” that we (meaning those who pay for their healthcare) are paying to make up for the monetary loss that our state incurs as a result of the uninsured. 

My humble suggestion?  Find out how much of that $100 billion dollars is thanks to our illegal neighbors and send ‘em a bill. 

Bad Republican, California, Healthcare, Mexico

Not Fox News you nutty liberal kooks…Michael J….

The Rush/Fox debate is one of the most innane “circle jerks” (to quote GoingThere) I’ve heard about lately…and it’s one where I’m not going to say Fox is right, or Rush is right, because I don’t care about that aspect…it’s petty, and frankly you can’t criticize Fox because he has a disease, so in classic Sheehan style, if you attack his view, you attack him personally.

My stance on this issue is where it always has been. Who cares about the “Morality” of the issue…it shouldn’t enter into it. In California we were going to state sponsor stem cell research…why? Capitalism dictates that if it’s a good idea, and there’s an avenue that involves Commercial investment, business will get involved. Why is this something that the public sector is dabbling in? Why is the government going to use our tax dollars to research something that if there real legitimate opportunity (and there may be) for medical advancement, should be left to the private sector? It’s not the government’s job to advance and fund such things…it the medical communities job, and if there’s money to be made (as long as Democrats still allow companies to make money) they’ll be there…trust me.

We distort the issues with anecdotal stories and misleading ads. In Fox’s case, if the proposition in question involves cloning, inform the people exactly what it is, don’t pull on the heartstrings to get your way. And while Fox admits he didn’t read the bill he was promoting, I do admire him stepping forward on this issue, it’s his right…but step forward, and it gives others free license to smack you around a bit…though the smacking might take extra effort, Fox is pretty good at the “Bob and Weave”…(*groan*)

Holy Crap…did that come out of my mouth. Where’s a puppy I can kick?

Healthcare, TV

Wait a second…you’re saying that if the government controls my healthcare I don’t have as many choices…shocking…just shocking.  See what’s happening in the UK now:

Health Minister Brian Gibbons approved the use of cetuximab in June, making Welsh patients the first in the UK to receive the drug.

But the UK’s health watchdog said on Monday it would not recommend its use as it was not cost effective.

Oncologist Professor John Wagstaff said the decision was a “significant blow”.

Cetuximab can delay the spread of advanced cancer and shrink tumours. It is prescribed to patients when all other forms of cancer therapy have failed.

In Wales, suitable patients can currently receive 18 weeks of treatment on the NHS, costing £600 a week.

But The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) has published final recommendations which conclude the treatment is not “a good use of scarce NHS resources”.

Deputy chief executive Andrea Sutcliffe said: “The evidence available on cetuximab does not compare it to current standard treatment and therefore we are not able to assess whether it is any better than existing treatments or whether the NHS could justify spending money on the drug.”

Pro socialized healthcare proponents believe that the government is capable of providing for all your needs, that’s of course if it falls into their budget.  Government run medicine is a line item on a budget, and while you might argue that insurance companies offer little difference, the fact is they don’t.  There are hundreds, if not thousands of health insurance providers in the United States, some more effective, and some expensive than others, but when all else fails, you have the option to pay for yourself, outside the bureaucracy.  That’s why Canadians and Brits come here…private industry for a long time wasn’t even allowed to participate in the healthcare process in Canada, but that’s slowly changing.

Any time that the government steps in, choice disappears, and it becomes a line item on a budget, often times controlled and voted on by people who have little or no expertise on the issues that they vote.  National Security, the government can have…but not my prescription drugs…regulate the quality, but stay out of the process.

Healthcare