At What Price Healthcare?

It's been said that any government that is big enough to give you everything is also big enough to take away everything.

Take a moment and think about that.

We currently have a population that has not really had to suffer much in terms of poverty or need. Sure, there are those who have done without. As Jesus said-the poor will always be with us. But by and large, Americans have had the freedom to make of themselves what they choose. Historically, our founders sought to give citizens access to the education denied common folks in their European, African and Asian homelands. They hoped this would result in a population that embraced their freedoms with wisdom and acceptance of the responsibilities attached. Sadly, as with most things that become common, Americans take education for granted. The assumption is that children are empty vessels to be filled rather than flaccid muscles to be worked. The value of actual work has been lowered to where even novices assume that they are entitled to the perq's their parents waited decades to achieve.

So let's go back to the first statement. If we are given the so-called boon of "universal healthcare" who will be the gatekeeper. When workers paid their own insurance, they made the decisions as to how much coverage to have and how to exercise the benefits. But if government writes the checks, at some point there will be a situation where limits will have to be enforced. This will occur at either end of the life spectrum. Already we are seeing the movement in government to accept not just early abortions, but late term abortions as an acceptable alternative. China has had a one child policy for decades. With the cost of childcare, and the distant clamoring for public education to become America's Babysitter, how long will it be before similar policies take place here? Or let's consider those children born prematurely or with disabilities? Already we are seeing couples who screen for disabilities before pregnancy and one can only wonder what happens down the road if a disabled child is born to full term legal limits of viability. And what about preemies? I know kids who are happy normal teens now who were two months premature. But such NICU care is costly. More costly than the Obama Administration wants to admit. So do we tax everyone higher to pay these bills? Or will these children be left to die or survive on their own? And what of end of life issues? We have two states that have allowed assisted suicide to some extent. Will the cost of staying alive in senior years change into the "duty to die" for our national debt? I am not talking about sustaining life at all costs through intervention, I am talking of things such as dialysis or other measures which allow people to live longer. If these costly care measures are eliminated to insure the economic viability of Universal Healthcare, will we be able to accept the moral consequences down the line? Add to that the current measures to tax those of us who get health insurance through our employers. My insurance covers my whole family. Yet I will be taxed for not being irresponsible. Explain to me how this makes sense.

While I think things can be done to offer cost effective insurance to many people, I am also aware that many people would rather spend their money in other ways than in buying insurance. Right now, that is their option. I could point out some well fixed families who live in high income areas who choose not to buy insurance and instead spend their money on vacations or new cars or any of a number of things that I would love to do, but I choose to take responsibility instead. What is galling to me is to see people who spend their money on so many other things, but who cry about the high cost of health care and insurance. At some point, we have totally missed the whole "wants vs. needs" conversation. And I am truly disturbed by the trends I am seeing to simply throw away freedom for a cheap program.

Remember back at the start-I told you any government big enough to give you everything can also take it away. If single payer or Universal healthcare is such an efficient system, why do both the UK and Canada have private health insurance programs? Remember, these nations are and were ruled by royalty. They have a cultural acceptance of varying tiers of population influence. American isn't supposed to be like that. We are supposed to be the hale and hardy pioneers who earn by the work or their own sweat and muscles. If we trade our freedom for a program that could ultimately tell us how to live, what to do and can deny access if we don't obey, then we are reentering the very type of tyranny that we fought to escape. And for all you liberals out there, please remember, this is a two-edged sword. While you may like the idea of such a program, living under its restrictions may be far more galling than you realize. Big programs have Big price tags. And Big Programs also have Big Bureaucracy that wastes money, time and effort through serving the preservation of the program over preservation of the health of the individual.

The worse sentence in history-we are from the government and we are here to help. Remember that.