LAUREN RICKS: Health care will never be free

Opinion

Discussion

October 7, 2009

Lauren Ricks Associate Editor The Athens Daily Review Wed Oct 07, 2009, 07:46 PM CDT

The proponents of “health insurance reform” are trying sell it like it’s a piñata.

Here is how they say the brand new system will work. When President Obama signs the final bill, health care will be passed out like free candy. Every American will be able to get whatever they want, whenever they want. We will dance in the streets and smile at each other again.

Then, we will all go to Disney World.

In the real world, the process will be more like going trick-or-treating on Halloween. All of us “little people” will have to ring the doorbell of a faceless bureaucrat and beg for just one lollipop.

We will all echo the question of Oliver Twist: “Please sir, may I have some more?”

And, we will have to happily take whatever he has to offer, even if we walk away empty-handed.

I do not like the idea of having no options when it comes to my health care. I don’t want the government to be involved in every decision I make in my life, simply because I have become property of the state.

This is not what this country was founded on, and should be rejected outright.

Of course, it sounds good to say that everyone in the country should be able to get health care. We are a compassionate nation, and do not wish to see anyone suffer.

The problem with universal health care is it doesn’t improve the quality for everyone. We just all get the same “treatment.”

I am not a mathematician, but logically it doesn’t make any sense to say if you put more people into the system, and your goal is to save money, there will be no rationing of care.

Actually, we have a very good indication of what will happen.

In Britain and Canada, people are suffering every day from delayed care. In both countries, patients diagnosed with cancer are denied life-saving drugs. Bureaucrats have become the judges deciding who is worth saving and who is not.

Those lucky enough to be treated by the system are forced to wait months. The Fraser Institute — a conservative Canadian think tank — found the average wait time for a CT scan was a month, more than two months for an MRI and 17.3 weeks to see a specialist for treatment.

In September, the Vancouver Sun reported the creation of a new advisory committee by the Canadian government to find “a new way to define publicly funded health services.”

Health Minister Ron Liepert said the goal of the committee is to “modernize our system, and make it more effective.”

Well, that would be nice.

Liberal MLA Hugh MacDonald called the current system a “mess,” and said the government is moving toward privatization.

The proponents have been on-record stating this single-payer, universal health care system will save money.

To quote U.S. Representative Joe Wilson, “You lie!”

Each and every developed nation which has adopted this system also has extremely high taxes.

One tax the Europeans are especially fond of is the value-added tax. The tax is levied on a product — ranging from cars to hamburgers — at every step of production to delivery. The end result is a weaker economy and less innovation.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is now a proponent of this wonderful invention. She is “quite open to the idea” of sucking the last drop of blood from our economy. The problem with taxing the American population to the hilt is the result. We can only make so much money when we have less to invest with. If the government levies taxes at 70 percent, and then tops it off with a new national sales tax — the VAT — there will be nothing left.

Unfortunately, some in the government think we have a perpetual money tree they can continue picking from.

This is simply not true. The Europeans have proved this time and again.

These countries have high unemployment, high taxes and restrictions on how much their citizens can work. This system makes the society less effective and productive.

So, once again the leaders in our country are attempting to take up the mantle of a dying experiment. I suggest Americans start considering what this system is doing in these countries before we adopt their mistakes.

Lauren Ricks is the associate editor of the Athens Review. She can be reached at lricks@athensreview.com.

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