Just Say "No" To ObamaCareby
Suzann Darnall
There is a lot of talk about Health Care Reform, but that is not what the current struggle in DC is really about. Nor that is what it should be about. It should be about eliminating the fraud, waste, and abuse that exists in the Health Care industry, much due to government involvement.
Our current Health Care system is upside down in bureaucracy. Doctors and other health care providers spend too much time on paperwork, lawsuits, fear of lawsuits, and government restrictions to adequately treat their patients. A huge chunk of what we pay for health care goes for malpractice insurance, because most doctors carry such high overhead. Another giant chunk goes to pay for them needlessly testing each patient for everything so that if something does unfortunately goes wrong they will be covered from being sued by showing they took every precaution.
Add in over-the-top demands from union leaderships to the other excesses and you have a recipe for high costs and ultimate disaster. I am not strictly anti-union; I am against what they have become. Once, unions protected much of the working class. Union leaders worked alongside the people they represented. Union leaders are powerbrokers of the worst kind, greedy for money and political power, with little care for the workers beyond the dues paid into the coffers and the votes they can get through intimidation. SEIU, AFL-CIO, and UAW are some of the worst that come to mind. The phrases union organizer and community organizer bring immediate images to my mind of baseball bats being wielded against plate-glass windows and even people. We know from recent reports that ACORN and SEIU are bedfellows, with Obama spending his adult life tucking them in safely each night so they can all snuggle comfortably.
ACORN and SEIU are among those pressing hardest for ObamaCare passage. Have you wondered why? Have you seen the sweetheart deals unions will get so they don't have to pay fines, fees, or taxes on their so-called "Cadillac-plans"? Have you considered how many businesses will be forced onto ObamaCare because they can't get decent health insurance rates for their employees without it? How many employees will then look at unionization in a new light because it can offer them a "Cadillac-plan"?
I am not an expert in unions, health care, politics, or insurance, but the tangled web they weave seems a creation of something more than playing doctor. It seems to be another step to a Progressive takeover of all aspects of our society and even our personal lives. One more step down the road to socialism and eventual one world government! After they first takeover our Health Care with the US government, do they then they turn our Health Care over to the oh-so-wise United Nations and its World Health Organization?
Forget the line in the sand crap, let's chisel a line in stone on Health Care … NOW! Tell Obama and Washington DC we will not tolerate them overstepping the bounds of their power and ramming something unnecessary down our throats. We need some reforms, but not the ways and nor means they propose. Reduction of government "health care" bureaucracy would do wonders at cutting overall costs. Tort reform would also help, as would a complete overhaul of the Medicare, Medicaid, free government-funded clinics, free ER visits for the uninsured, and all the worldwide medical aid we provide at taxpayer expense. I am sure there are other areas where true experts could locate excess costs and fraud, waste and abuse, but these would be a good place to begin.
I do not propose that taxpayers do not care for poor American citizens who cannot afford to care for themselves. But, the first step in such reform is that we are paying only for American citizens. We are constantly being told we are not the world's police. Well then why are we expected to be the world's doctor, nurse, and pharmacist? Instead of going around the world apologizing for all the ways America has "interfered" in various countries over the past century or so, why doesn't Obama go on a world tour letting these countries know that we will no longer "interfere" in their affairs, and they can fund their own drug and medical aid programs?
Also, we must stop paying the tab for illegal aliens, undocumented workers, illegal immigrants, clandestine workers, unnaturalized residents, or whatever the heck the current terminology. They are not American citizens. Plain and simple! If someone breaks into my house, is he now entitled to access my bank account because he can now be considered a member of the family by virtue of his location? I think not! To my mind, someone who unlawfully breaks into my home and wants access to my bank account or someone who illegally enters our country and wants access to our tax resources, is still guilty of taking money that is not theirs. They are both criminals and not entitled to the benefits accorded to the legal residents of both locations!
As for Health Care fraud, waste, and abuse, the financial facts are fuzzy and staggering. I found statistics and reports saying that Medicare and Medicaid fraud and abuse cost anywhere from $44-$170 billion annually. Other fraud, waste, and abuse estimates range from $260-$800 billion a year. Much of this is linked back to government Health Care involvement.
We need to look at simple solutions, not a mythical "overhaul" of a system that just ain't that broke. But, it will be completely broke, along with the entire country's economy, if Obama and his Progressive cohorts have their way. Broke as in no longer working, and broke as in out of money!!!
Do we really want the people who are "in charge" of the US Postal Service to be "in charge" of Health care? What will their solution be? Shut down all ERs on the weekends? No Saturday deliveries by OB-Gyns? And, was it just me, or did Obama sound like a complete idiot when he pronounced it "oh-be-guy-knees"??? I have had two children, one partial hysterectomy, uncounted "women's clinic" appointments and procedures, been with my mother through two pregnancies that I remember, been with my daughters through five pregnancies, as well as having countless friends go through pregnancies, and never ever have I heard OB-Gyn pronounced as anything but "oh-be-gee-why-in"! Sorry for the little side-trip down language row, but some stupidity is just too annoying to let pass without comment.
Back to simplicity in solutions. We should be looking to true conservatives for ideas to fix the things that are wrong with the system. I would be more likely to consider advice from the doctors in Washington, DC, than the lawyers. I've not been able to get exact numbers on how many doctors and lawyers serve in the House and Senate, but it appears to be around 15 doctors to 200 lawyers. The doctors are mostly Republicans, while the majority or lawyers are Democrats. I don't know if this is pertinent or not, but it does make me wonder why the Democrats are seemingly so against tort reform as part of the solution to American's so-called Health Care system reform? It also makes me a little more likely to listen to the GOP members when they put forth their simpler ideas that seem to address those areas that actually have problems, rather than a sweeping broad-stroke to change just about everything whether it's broken or not.
To me, it seems easy. First, listen to the American people when they tell DC they don't want ObamaCare. Second, fix the things about the system that are broke, most of which do not actually involve Health Care, but do involve the attendant areas of insurance, lawsuits, fraud, waste, abuse, and the bloated bureaucracy in general. Oh, and, along the way, all y'all in DC might demand to see, hold and read the bill … Demand to have an actual, real life, for true bill to vote on, instead of some amorphous, Progressive, power-grabbing, legislation "whatever," never actually seen in final form, to shove down America's throat. My gag reflex is gettin' mighty sensitive.
© Suzann C. Darnall, MARCH 2010