Just Say NO To Obamacare

By Mike Cuneo (written July 25, 2009)

With all the "debate" going on right now over the details of what is likely to become socialized healthcare, the free market perspective championed by Ron Paul has gone largely unnoticed, as well as the root cause of the significant problems Americans face today regarding healthcare. This article attempts to give an overview of the problem, how we got here, and what we can do as freedom loving people to fix the problem and avoid seceding even more control, power, and money to the fatcats in Washington DC.

Overview of the "Healthcare problem" in America

It's funny, with all the so-called debate going on in Washington, I haven't heard one doctor, lawyer, politician, or news anchor define "healthcare." Is it free medicine for cancer patients? Some Neosporin to a child who falls in the park? Glasses and contacts for college students? Comprehensive coverage for every health-related problem every American faces, including emergencies? Emergency room-only coverage? Mandatory wellness checkups? And so on. No one has yet to define healthcare, and there certainly isn't a consensus on what "healthcare" actually means when we are discussing this problem. So how can we fix a problem we haven't diagnosed? That's my first problem with this "debate" on healthcare. There are many more, as you will find out if you keep reading. What you have heard on the news or read in the (propaganda spewing) newspapers is that millions of Americans are uninsured. I've heard numbers as low as 20 million up to 48 million today from someone on Fox News. This is all just more of the propaganda, lies, and distortions that have become all too familiar in Washington. No one bothers to look into the actual number of people without health insurance. And again, how are we defining health insurance? I know someone who has a basic plan that works fine for him, while my grandparents have more coverage as they are in their 80s. So first we would have to get a definition of health insurance, which hasn't been done, and then an accurate count of those uninsured. Neither has been accomplished to my knowledge. So I just assume that the politicians are lying or bending the truth at best to get more power, which usually yields good results for me because following that plan of skepticism towards Washington has been dead on again and again and again. But even if we do somehow define health insurance and get an accurate count on the number of uninsured, all that work would have been for nothing. Because it ignores the people who could have insurance, just choose not to. It also ignores people who rely on friends and family for basic medical help and just pay out of pocket for things like glasses and dental care. So any numbers coming out of Washington DC are, as usual, not only inaccurate but largely irrelevant to the real problem. Another thing you will hear a lot of is people harping on the "big insurance companies" who rack up "huge profits" as "costs soar." These healthcare suits smoke fat cigars all day while your dying mother with cancer is denied coverage because of the entity known as a "preexisting condition." If you read the paragraph above you will see why this is just another game to get more support for socializing our medicine. But the whole preexisting condition line of argument ignores the fact that it is more expensive to treat someone who is already sick, be it from years of smoking or just bad luck (genes). Regardless, there is no way around the fact that yes, it does cost more to insure someone with terminal cancer as opposed to someone young and healthy. Just like there is no way around the fact that we all must eat and drink water to survive, and there is also no way around the laws of supply and demand, although the pols in Washington think they can skirt them from time to time. Someone must pay to insure the person or group with a preexisting condition. This whole national healthcare premise masks this cost, and just transfers it to a large group of healthy people. Everyone totally ignores that the cost must be paid or no coverage can be rendered. It's very similar to the moaning about companies who "charge $50 for a $2 pill." Well, not only are they charging for the pill itself, but also the other 7 or 8 pills that went to the FDA and were deemed too dangerous so they had to be scrapped. Also all the other drugs and treatments that were tried but never made it to the FDA for review. All that research and development must be accounted for, yet the talking heads on TV love to ignore it and just paint the picture of a rich CEO living the high life while you suffer. Give me a break.

How We Got Here

If you've been paying any attention or have read my previous articles, you already know the answer. Government is to blame for this current situation. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. (Hint: if there is a massive problem in our country, or anywhere in the world really, you can guess who caused it: Government. And you would be right almost 100% of the time.) But how did the government cause this problem, you might ask? And if it was indeed government, can't we just blame George Bush and move on to hope and change and free medicine already? Glad you asked. Government caused, and continues to exarcebate, the healthcare problem on several fronts. First of all, they have massive rules and regulations regarding who can and can't practice medicine. So this limits competition. A "public option" won't fix this because people will still be shut out of offering help and medical care without being licensed or registered with the state. So I can't go next door and see my neighbor who might be able to fix my earache without one of us (or both) being subject to taxes, lawsuits, or other nonsense. So most people don't bother offering up advice or real help because there is such a high cost and risk that you can be penalized by the government who claims to be doing it "for our own good." All drugs must be cleared by the FDA which is your standard government racket that is bloated, inefficient, and costly. This causes delays and errors that cost lives. There are rules and regulations and taxes that stipulate who can and can't offer and receive health care. The law, which is run by a separate government racket (courts and judges and police etc), also contriutes. Why would anyone risk a lawsuit where they have to waste time and effort defending themselves and then not get reinbursed for their time and lost productivity? Government laws are what cause this. You can't recoup 100% of your lost time and money if someone sues you and they lose. So it tilts things in favor of people who just sue and hope to catch a crooked judge or just a bad defense lawyer, because they have very little to lose by just suing over and over and trying to gain. The president, congress, and other government employees are so skeptical of their own plan that they won't even take the first step and enroll themselves and their families in the very plan they are concocting for us! How about we give the plan a trial run, and only the politicians and government employees must be in the plan for, say, 5 years, just to see how it goes. Wouldn't that be amazing? The reality is that they will likely never enroll in the plan and we will be stuck with it. And finally the government inflates our money and prints/creates out of thin air all sorts of new currency, which is a huge factor in costs going up, not just in healthcare but in all aspects of life. There are other ways the government interferes but these are a few of the main ones that are not getting adequate coverage in the papers or on TV, which is why I've turned to the internet for most of my news (I watch MSNBC and CNBC for market quotes and the comedy that insues every time Steve Liesman opens his mouth.)

What Freedom Loving People Can (And Should) Do To Fix The Problem First of all we must say no before it's too late, but in reality it probably already is too late to stop this train labeled "health reform" from leaving the station. What can we do then? Well, we can continue the fight for freedom by supporting people like Ron Paul, and spreading the word to as many people as possible about the evils of government run healthcare (and everything else they run). We can help ourselves and others by exercising and taking our health into our own hands. Encourage a friend or family member to stop smoking. Eat healthier. Eat less. Voice your opposition to government sponsored health care whenever and wherever you can. Print this article and pass it around to everyone you see. Hell, tell them you wrote it, I don't really care. Just get the message out that we cannot afford more government red tape and control over our lives. We must join Ron Paul and resist these efforts. We must also take matters into our own hands as much as possible and be healthy on our own, because God knows what will happen when we must turn to Uncle Sam when our health is in danger.