Anyone old enough to remember the old radio program "The Life of Reilly" will recall Reilly’s statement sometime during the half- hour show…."oh what a revoltin’ development!" That is the way I am thinking of the piecemeal, patched-together, compromised, scatter-shot so- called Health Reform bill that will probably be passed by the Senate.
I KNOW this nation needed health reform—-but not this gigantic, government takeover that seems to be the true reason for passing it…..more control over our lives as citizens. We needed to reform and fix that which needed to be fixed; we did NOT need this monstrosity that will shackle us and raise taxes and healthcare costs in future decades. Those who were unable to get health insurance needed to have a way made for them to be insured and receive the care they needed. The rest of the population who already had satisfactory health care did NOT need to have the entire "shebang" thrown out and replaced with this goverment- controlled plan—- if you can call such a mess a plan!!!
Private insurance companies needed to be reined in as far as refusing healthcare to people with pre-existing conditions. That would have been a good step. The thing that was NOT done in this so- called "reform" of healthcare is the reining in— or pulling the plug on the ambulance-chasing lawyers who have nearly bankrupted clinics, doctors and other parts of the present system. But those who were pushing for this massive healthcare takeover did not want to disturb the ambulance- chasing lawyers—-those lawyers were left to their own devices, due to the fact that they contribute heavily to the very politicians who pushed for the government takeover of healthcare….a full one-sixth of our national economy. Oh, will we feel the repercussions down the line as this gargantuan mess takes effect!!!!
I fully plan to follow the advice of the 100+ year old lady who , when asked what her secret to her long life and relative good health was, answered quickly: "Stay away from doctors!" (and government healthcare insurance) I will spend time in jail and live off the goverment that way, before I will be pushed into something I will not tolerate for "insurance". Medicare will become obsolete by the cutting of the funds for it ( that was already almost bankrupt) that has already been promised by the "reformers".
One of the sorriest aspects of this healthcare bill was the buying of support for it by the party in power. The "Second Louisiana Purchase" for Senator Mary Landrieu’s vote is an example of the worst in American/ or any other nation’s politics. Just a day or so ago, Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska did the expected "cave" and was bought off by the Senate leaders for his promised support. One Senator who spoke after that revelation about Senator Nelson’s support, made the pithy statement congratulating Senator Nelson on playing "The Price Is Right". Those buy-offs for millions , even billions of dollars of pork barrel promises, are the most disgusting and degrading aspects of our political scene. They say that that is how the game is played inside the Beltway, but for someone like me… who lives far outside the Beltway, it is a disgraceful way to enact laws that affect all of us in this country.
We have traditionally looked down on the political corruption of Banana Republics or even some older European nations that engage in dirty politics and payoffs.
But as "Pogo" of the popular comic strip of the 1950′s so sagely said, "We have met the enemy, and it is us!"
Where it will all end, what it will be like, we don’t know. Two things in the U.S. are stubborn. One is facts: 20,000 people die each year because we do not have health care. 40,000 die because of mostly preventable car wrecks. The other thing that is stubborn is doing anything about either of these facts.
Jon I would be interested in your opinion of the “leadership” in the House and Senate. I am appalled and would also be if they were the other party. Yes those who cannot get insurance need it…and that would be true reform. Those who do not need it should not have it taken away by a total throw-everything-else-out mentality.
I truly fear what this is going to do to further damage the nation’s economy which is going down the drain pretty fast already with the present policies of spend spend spend…spend what we do not have. The promise to African nations–and others—(at the Copenhagen conference) of billions of dollars annually is another nail in the economic coffin for our nation.
I know I am talking to a real economist so I am probably off by a mile but what do you think???
Thank you for the compliment implying I might know something about this. I’m not sure that the case. The assumption by Dems, of course, is that there is so much $ spent and wasted in the current system that they can’t make it worse. They know, though, that more medical services will be used by the public if it is available to more people. I heard about a part of the bill that is not talked about. Apparently, it funds many pilot experiements in delivery systems and there is a belief that something will emerge. That sounds good. I have my own bias based on things I’ve observed, so my views are clouded by this. For example, our friend in Kindred, 90 something, died a few months ago. When the fam. thought he was shutting down, a Dr. breezed in and said he needed a brain scan. He died shortly after. The fam. was billed 2 grand & medicare whatever. Similar thing happened w/ my own father 20 yrs ago. I saw 2 long interviews w/ the head of Mayo who discussed this very thing–said Mayo spends more time discussing things w/ patients & families and avoids the end-of-life profiteering. Unfortunately, I’ve read also that the profiteering operations are growing faster than the Mayos so (I think) the future of our current system looks even more bleek to me than to bill in DC. On climate change, I’m influenced by my NDSU friend Allen Ashworth who says there is an imp. man-made element to climate change. Then, of course, there is the calculation of risk. If we reduce emmissions, our “stand. of living” might fall, say 20-30%. But, we’re still here. If we assume there is no man-made influcence, but we’re wrong, and gazillions die, invade each other’s countries, etc., the consequences swamp the small lower stand. of living. Just seems like the prudent wager is to assume there’s a man-made influence and deal with it. Anyway, we are certainly living in interesting times. Maybe I have just enough space left to say again I enjoy your blog and hope you have a great holiday.
Thank you Jon for your insights. I appreciate reading them; there are good points to reform in healthcare. We too experienced the urge to go for more radiation when an elderly family member was dying. Fortunately he was wise and said NO emphatically and died a death that was not agony brought on by the treatments they wanted to do on him.
I wish you and your family a blessed and happy Christmastime also.