As a resolution in the healthcare debate comes to a close, the public support continues to diminishes. Huge majorities of voters are openly against the current healthcare bill and strangely enough on both sides of the isle. Conservatives are against it because it simply cost too much, it removes all aspects of personal responsibility and dwindles our liberty by the truck load. At the same time liberals oppose the bill because it doesn’t do enough to create full government control of the healthcare system. Even as our president repeats himself time and time again on how this bill will be deficit neutral and how it will not raise our debt one dime, 66% of the country seems to believe otherwise.
President Obama did make a guarantee to all of us, he said if the bill is not passed, your insurance premiums will go up, employers will load up more costs on you, potentially they are going to drop your coverage, and the federal government will go bankrupt. I have to tell you, that is some guarantee. To guarantee what my employer will do if the government isn’t taxing him for not paying enough for my insurance is bold, not to mention the guarantee that the federal government will go bankrupt if we do not spend a couple trillion on healthcare that we never had to start with. With that prediction, lets roughly run through the plan. They want to cut the Medicare budget by about 500 billion dollars and tax the wealthy another 500 billion over a ten year period. They will begin issuing benefits after about 4 years into the increased taxes and cuts then try to tell us that they will reduce the deficit by 100 billion. Well, how about we look at 10 years of actual healthcare plan implication. The healthcare bill, without saving for 4 years is estimated to cost around 2.5 trillion dollars which means not only do they not pay into our debt, but they will increase the debt by about a trillion and a half.
The really interesting thing is that I have heard no politician talk about the real problems in our healthcare system and that is the actual cost for healthcare. I see them talking about how crowded emergency rooms are because people don’t have insurance, but that won’t change with government run healthcare. People who flock to emergency rooms for free medical care are going to flock somewhere for it. The problem is what is costs those who actually try to do things right. Here is an example. One person’s ER visit cost them $2000 , and $300 of that was for an ace bandage. If I can go to my local pharmacy and purchase that bandage for 5 bucks and we all know buying in bulk saves money, then why can’t a hospital get that bandage and distribute it to me for the same price or less? I’ll tell you why, it is because those of us who are responsible enough to have insurance to pay for our medical needs are having to pay for those who don’t. The money is going to change hands one way or another. we can either pay for it through our taxes and let the most corrupt organization in the country manage it, or we can pay it to our insurance providers and let the hospitals rack up the bill to cover those who don’t seem to have the personal initiative to get things done themselves. Those in favor of this healthcare reform may as well be sitting on the corner of the street with a tin can in their hand and their game boy in the other while asking us to pay for their medical needs. The passing of this legislation, to me, will mark the beginning of an era where people are at ease allowing the federal government to determine what they need as if to say they will be content standing in the bread lines as long as they don’t have to live responsibly.