Health Care to Die for

Primed for a vote on Christmas Eve, the largest monstrosity of a bill, noted as ObamaCare, will drastically change America for the worst. That's right, we're heading straight into business tonight.

I am stark raving mad over this 2100 page "Health Care Reform" currently waiting on the docket in the Senate. I cannot believe that anyone in their right mind would actively support this bill. And I'll tell you why.

First and foremost, how did we get into this mess to begin with? I mean, think back one year. Think of everything you remember. All the talk was about the ailing housing market, the auto magnets going bankrupt, the failing stock markets, the wars, Obama's inauguration coming up, and everything else in the mix, and you still have an acute lack of any issues with the health care industry! No one complaining about their health insurance! Nothing at all. And yet, here we are at the precipice of massive overhaul.

So let's pretend there was a real need for this. Who is to blame? Is it the insurance carriers? Sure, insurance premiums are expensive. But do you know what? Life is the most precious commodity on earth, and so we'll pay whatever fee is necessary to keep that heart beating, and we won't mind too much what the bill is so long as we keep breathing air. But let's get beyond my quasi-philosophical rhapsody.

In 1945, the McCarran - Ferguson bill was passed. This regulated insurance companies from interstate commerce. It was supposed to keep an insurance monopoly from happening. Basically what it did was make it nigh impossible for an insurance company to offer an individual in NEw York City, the same rate as someone in North Dakota. Considering there are 10 times as many people in NYC as compared to all of North Dakota, and people in NYC pay 5 times as high a rate for health insurance, you can see where price fixing would come in handy as a insurance carrier.

I think the next big problem, again introduced by our legislature by Nixon, is the 1973 HMO Act (Health Maintenance Organization). This bill stated that any employer with more than 25 employees had to, by law, offer mandatory HMO insurance enrollment. This Act eventually ended in 1995, but by then, the largess of the market was already dominated by HMO companies. Almost all of the smaller insurance companies had been bought up or went under. Once again, with a few large companies in control of the market, price fixing was afoot. And I don't know if you've ever dealt with an HMO (like Kaiser), but they are retroactive entities, rather than pro-active. Meaning, if you need an MRI, they wait until it is absolutely necessary rather than getting you in immediately. Not only that, but you have to find a doctor on their list -- and every single one of those doctors is bought and paid for by the HMO, so try to remember that when asking for something -- they are shy to bite the hand that feeds them.

I'll just briefly discuss MediCare, as I've already done so before. But in 1965, as part of LBJ's "Great Society" propaganda, he established MediCare. Now, I admit that some people need help, especially as they get older and try to live on a meager Social Security check. But this MediCare states that anyone over the age of 65 can get on it and have, essentially, free health care. Good for them, however, it also eliminated all insurance companies abilities to offer health care because they were undermined by extremely low costs from the government. And MediCare will be broke in a few years because they continue to offer the best deal by breaking the bank (i.e., the tax payers).

So here we have three solid reasons for there to be issues in health care, even though we weren't complaining about it. And all three reasons stem from the government and their unhelpful intervention. And now they want to help us all...

The Heritage Foundation, which is an excellent source of facts, has put together a good report on the two bills. Two bills? Yes, the one which the House passed with Nancy Pelosi at the helm, and the current bill that Harry Reid is pushing to pass. This report states what these bills would do if they pass and consolidate (just read the first 3 paragraphs). Even if the bill passes the Senate, the house will still have to vote on it since the Senate basically rejected the House's version. Anyway, there is nothing positive in these bills. It is all bad. And we still haven't gotten to the part that really pissed me off yet.

As I've stated before, Americans live a long and healthy life, except for the fact that we drive fast and play war. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with how we do our health care system, aside from the aforementioned mingling from the government. The question becomes, then, what is the point of all this? Why does the government need control of our very lives? Call me a nut (preferably a cashew), but doesn't this feel like slavery here? I said in the beginning, people will pay whatever cost to stay alive, and when the bureaucrats have this sort of power, what else should this be called?

And no, still not to the part that ticked me off.

As pointed out on the American Thinker website, this well gifted Health Care Reform bill offers some benefits ... to the trial lawyers as it creates 26 new loopholes for attorneys to file medical malpractice suits against physicians because of the litany of paperwork they will have to plow through to get you the necessary treatment. That will surely increase costs and thus reduce benefits for everyone.

But that didn't make me very mad.

So here's something to consider: in Reid's version of the bill, it is mandatory to have health insurance. If you do not, you are in violation of the law and fined $15,000 and/or punishable up to one year in prison. For not having insurance, or, for not signing up for free insurance. Can you believe the precedence that is setting? Is this even legal?

And here's the part that got me: are you kidding me?

Yep, not only is this 2100 page behemoth the worst bill ever written, Mr. Reid has put in there that this Health Care bill CANNOT BE repealed. Even parts of the Constitution can be repealed or amended if necessary, but this arrogant imbecile is making this law unbreakable, unfixable, or untouchable, for that matter. What if it is a catastrophe? Oh well, what is written is written. We'll live with this tyranny. Watch the video of Senator DeMint on the Senate floor.

And frankly, there is nothing we can do about it except yell. Senators have been bought and paid for, just as the HMOs do for doctors. Senator Nelson of Nebraska got an unmeasurable amount of benefits for his MediCare recipients in his state because they will never face a cut-back, ever. What that means is that there will be rationed care, just not in Nebraska. And he is the 60th vote. Is that legal, what he did? Probably not, because other states could sue Nebraska, maybe even mockingly use the "separate but equal" tag line from Brown v. Board of Education case.

Senator Nelson wasn't the only recipient of bought votes. Apparently Senator Dodd gets a $100 million grant to build a new hospital in his state, listed as a provision within the bill. Isn't that nice of Reid? Politics as usual, I suspect.

There is a small window of hope. Sure, the public polls are overwhelmingly against this, even liberals don't like it. That small glimmer of hope, however, lies with congressmen such as Parker Griffith, a democrat who just changed parties today. As a former physician, he would be one to recognize a bad idea in this field. Since the Senate bill will be remanded back to the House for approval, congressmen jumping ship could be our saving grace. I know, it's a stretch of the imagination, but it is the only shot we have at this point, because there are still 60 Senators in favor of this anti-American bill.

Well, as I stated before, I just cannot understand why anyone would get behind this bill and positively assert that it is for the greater good. If you have something of merit regarding this bill, pass it along. I will look into it with the hopes that there is something of worth, otherwise, the future looks bleak and our health and freedom will play second fiddle in this orchestra of events.

P.S. I wrote this quick and carelessly. I may have made-up a word or two.

The Last Race

There I go again, being "afk" for long periods of time. It's because I spend so much time researching, that, you know, I just don't have the excess time to post... right.

No politics today, just the realization of life creeping upon me. And by that, I mean a blast from the past recently dying and making the news while doing so. Not in a "shoot-out at local school" sort of way. But rather, in a prevalent manner which is all too akin to where I grew up; at the coast.

I grew up in a small town. Sure, we all pretty much say that, and maybe we pine for pity points with such exclamations, but I graduated high school with 35 other kids. True, it was the smallest graduating class since the 1950s in that school, and true, we started out our senior year with 42 kids, but that half-dozen dropped out for greener pastures. So, in our student body of 250 kids, our small class never won any Spirit Awards because all the other classes were more than twice our size. Hated Spirit week, except for getting to wear hats for one week of the school year.

I went to 4 different grade schools growing up. At the second to last one I met a semi-bratty child named Steve. who was in the 5th grade just like me, but in another class. The reason we knew each other is that his mom was our Den Leader for Webelos Scouts. So we spent a lot of time together. Even then he had a size complex -- a Napoleon in training -- and that would be his issue for the rest of his short life.

During the Pine Wood Derby, he totally trashed my car's design saying it was going to lose. His was this flat, uninspiring gold wedge, while I carved this tall car with a tail fin and ornate flames painted on the side. He had hollowed out the bottom for the 5oz of lead filler, and I opted to have the lead in the front of the car to represent exhaust pipes coming from the engine. Fancy that, the championship race came down to his and my car, and Mr. Trashy-talkie took the long walk home, thank-you-very-much! Of course, it was the cheap year for Pine Wood Derby racing, so instead of a trophy or neat metal, I got a blue ribbon.

After that, I moved further north and into a different school, and lo and behold, Steve shows up one day and we go through high school together. I could get a long with him fine enough, we were friendly towards each other, didn't hang out together, but we hung out with the same people and he seriously dated a friend for years. Uh, not entirely sure if he actually graduated. Hmm.

Well anyway, the point is that after high school, I left the area and hardly maintained contact with any of my fellow graduates. We didn't even have a 10 year reunion. I heard mention that a handful got together and got drunk at the beach, but then this last summer we had a 15 year reunion, and nearly 1/3 came! Yeah, so 11 people showed up. Steve wasn't one of them. Too bad, as I was willing to remind him of the Pine Wood Derby back in the late `80s.

Then, later week, via Facebook (through my wife's account) a post stated that they were still looking for Steve. Apparently he was working on a crabbing vessel when he got tangled in some line that scooped him over board. He was found a few hours later, drowned in the mouth of the Columbia River. There are over 2000 ship wrecks in that area for ~150 years of record-keeping, and half as many claimed lives. It is a treacherous terrain with huge swells and nasty undercurrents. He was aged 32, accordingly. He was a small snip-it in the evening news, an unfortunately segue between other pressing stories. They didn't mention anything about his untenuous Webelos claims on Pine Wood Derby designs (not giving that up just yet...).

This wasn't the first tragedy to befall my small school compatriots. A few years ago Casey was shot through the neck in a drug deal gone sour. While discussing this with one school mate, Casey had made a lot of people miserable, and now lives as a quadriplegic in a special home. You kinda new that would be his fate, or something similar. I didn't feel that strongly about Steve, but I figured at least some highlight of probation therein, since he didn't join the military straight out of high school (7 classmates did, or rather, 1/5 of them).

So there it is, one classmate down, one in a wheel chair, and most of them having had divorces of those that got married. Maybe there was something in the water up there. I wish I had more statistics on my small class, perhaps I could compile some information, see an apparent algorithm and thus warn them all of impending doom. Now that's pessimism, but honestly, for a class this small, they shouldn't be dying off just yet.

I can't say that I will miss Steve, but I would have liked to see him again. If only to say something about my stupid blue ribbon of worth from a cheap Pine Wood Derby year.