If you've ventured around this site enough you'll probably figure out that I'm not an Obama fan by any stretch of the imagination. While I don't generally talk about politics on this blog, I believe that there is a political topic which overlaps with the general theme of this blog: Universal Health Care Coverage. So far, the plan that Obama has in mind involves taking $634,000,000,000.00 to cover the costs.
Naturally, I don't think this is a good idea at all. I understand that everyone needs health care but that it's expensive and out of reach for millions of families. I don't think that the best approach is to turn the other taxpayers upside down, shake the money out of them, and then write the check. The cost of health care has to come down. This doesn't get solved with the government taking over the show. I barely trust them to build roads and bridges properly and on-budget. Plus, nearly every state that starts up its own health care plan (like Tennesee's "TennCare") go way over-budget. Government take-over or plans to cover the uninsured don't make it affordable.
Too often, I think that the real answers to problems like this are disregarded. I think that the real reason why healh care is so expensive and so unobtainable is very simple: We have far too many overweight and obese people in the United States. Caring for these people drives up the cost of insurance to the heights that we're seeing today.
Presently, only a third of Americans are at a healthy body weight. The other two thirds are either overweight or obese (technically, the obese slightly out-number the overweight). Obviously, when you're at an unhealthy body weight, you're more unhealthy and consume more health care. Does anyone ever think that the cost of this health care has to get paid for somewhere? Do those who advocate universal health care get that the costs don't just disappear into thin air? Does anyone think that the high costs of health care is body repair for those who refuse to do any body maintenance?
The costs are considerable too. I've heard that pharmecutical companies rake in $250,000,000,000.00 a year in sales (I don't remember if this was all in the USA but I wouldn't be surprised if most of it is). If we've got 198,000,000 people overweight/obese and dependant on drugs to function normally, does this really shock anyone that much? I know or knew (some of them died) obese people who go to the doctors at least once a week. I'm sure you know someone like that too. Did you ever think of how much those visits alone cost? Did you ever think about multiplying that cost by 60,000,000-90,000,000?
While we're asking questions, let's think about Obama's solution known as universal health care. If we simply start paying for those who can't afford their health care, do you think that this will get any better? We already know that there are weflare abusers who refuse to do anything in the way of work unless forced to do so. What makes anyone think that these people will get healthier if they have access to health care? They don't have to pay for their eating-induced mistakes. They'll just make up some excuse (such as its so hard to eat healthy) and pass the taxpayers the tab for their doctor visits, insulin, prozac, statins, and joint replacement surgery. It's just a simple fact: people will not do, or pay for, what they don't have to. If they can pass blame, they'll do it. Worst of all, there will someone there to say that it's not their fault.
Ultimately, I see the political issue of universal health care as a non-solution to a problem that we don't really want to awknowledge. If we really wanted health care affordable, we have to stop treating health care like it's a right and that we don't have to pay for it. We also have to shed our collective waist lines. Americans need to eat healther and get more exercise. Otherwise, our health care will continue to be unafffordable, regardless of which sector of the economy that we chose to shift the cost to.
4 comments:
what kind of t's do you have?
Jacksmith,
I have a friend who lives in Copenhagen. Near the holidays, she went to the doctors with a severe case of tounsilitis. They gave her some ineffective medicine (Chiara, if you're reading this, please chime in if I get this wrong) and sent her home.
She returned later and told the doctor that the medicine wasn't working and she needed something else. The doctor blew her off, telling her that she wasn't dying and there wasn't a problem.
So, people get rushed through public health care systems just as much as they get rushed through the private, for-profit ones. If you think that government does health care out of the kindness of their hearts, then you're fatally naive. They're getting something out of this.
The British Government is already violating the Hippocratic Oath by ordering delayed treatment in hospitals to smokers for procedures and surgeries in favor of non-smokers. Does this sound right to you?
Besides, how do you propose that we pay for this? We could do what France does and run up massive foreign debt. We could do what Canada does and cap the price they'll pay for things like drugs, causing it to increase in price elsewhere (which, coincidentally, is part of the reason why drugs cost more here than in Canada. We're subsidizing Canadian health care). Or, we could do what Denmark does and tax a half-to-two-thirds of everyone's income.
Making or doing something for profit doesn't make it inheritely evil. In fact, anything that doesn't make a profit or another tangible benefit is unsustainable. It leads to inaction, waste and laziness. It's like the oldsaying in the Soviet Union: "we pretend to work and they pretend to pay us."
Seriously, you need to start thinking outside of the box. Ask some hard questions and don't take party line talking points. I thought that the old ways of Washington weren't going to work anymore.
Whle you're at it, if you live in the USA, drive by a Ponderosa or any other buffet and check out the patrons. Now, think about paying for one of their health care bills out of your pocket. Chances are, if you're a healthy body weight, there's a person in there that is consuming 4-6 times as much health care as you are. They're eating up that health care just because they want to inhale 4000 calories a day. Under Obamas plan, I guarantee you that you will be paying for millions of cases like this. That shouldn't be a right that they have.
Justin
Interesting view... although I will have to disagree. The USA is one of the countries with the highest foreign debt in the world, clearly the current health care model has not helped with that.
I agree that a lot of people in the US exhibit an over-dependency on drugs that you just cannot find anywhere else, and that health issues are rampant. However, do not lose sight of the role of the drug and health care providers who push people into this sort of dependency through false marketing and the favorite American "scare" tactics employed through mass media.
Bottom line: I think that it is an awful travesty for the world's most developed nation to have one of the world's shoddiest healthcare systems. With all the fallout from almost a decade of retard/redneck-implemented deregulation, the additional costs of universal health care are the least of the issues the US is facing now. With the legacy of the old administration leaving a lot of people jobless and exposed to more stress, it is likely that universal healthcare will become even more of a necessity. Sad, yet true.
Interesting topic. I am from Spain, but I have lived in the US for two years.
In Spain we have public healthcare. Unless in an emergency, it is not as good as healthcare in the US: less efficiency of workers in general, waitlists, older equipment and so on. We pay lots of taxes for it. I like you get treated no matter what, but I don't like that my taxes are paying for healthcare of people that don't want to work or don't want to have a healthy lifestyle.
In the US, if you have insurance healthcare is excellent. But 1) you have to attend a hospital in the network of your insurance company, 2) there are usually extra costs even if you are insured, 3) everything is way too overpriced, and 4) you get the feeling that their profit is more important than your well-being.
Insurance companies and their related lobbies have too much power in the US. None of the systems is perfect but that's too scary.
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