Excellent article. Socialism seems founded on the belief that the majority ought to get screwed so that a tiny minority can benefit. This is done in the name of “fairness”.
I have read your position on health care and although in the main I agree, there are several specific areas in which I believe you and the republican party are wrong.
First, preventative care should be through education. It should not be part of the insurance program paid for by the government.
With that as the primary premise, you understand wherein I do not agree with some of your other positions without my going into detail.
This is exactly what is going wrong in our country.
The republicans are determined to show that they can outdo the dims.
“We've got a better plan” WHEN THE BEST PLAN IS TO SCRAP THE ENTIRE IDEA
and start over.
I believe it was Rush Limbaugh that hit the nail on the head.
The remark in general was that our health insurance is doomed for failure
and the best way to understand why is to compare it to auto insurance.
Suppose you had auto insurance that would pay for oil changes, tire
rotation, car wash, engine tune-up, etc.?
Worse yet, suppose it was a government insurance plan.
That is what we have in health insurance today.
For Medicare to pay for me to have my eyes examined or a physical is
outrageous.
There are even those who complain because they can't get Viagra for free!
Prescription drugs should not be paid for by health care either unless they
are a part of something catastrophic.
Which brings us to what health insurance should be: Health insurance
should be to take care of truly catastrophic health crisis such as heart
attacks, heart surgery, kidney failure and/or replacement, incapacitation
from strokes, auto accidents, etc.
There are many other catastrophic illnesses which I will not mention but
which should fall under an insurance program.
You are correct that insurance companies should offer wide ranging options in insurance plans, just as with auto insurance one can select deductibles, types of coverage, coverage limits, etc., the same should be available in health insurance.
Unless someone with guts tells the public the way it is, this idea of
socialized medicine will destroy this country.
Or end up with only the rich getting real medical attention because of
their ability to fly to India or some other place where they can purchase
their treatment.
But the political mind will not accept this idea at all.
The reason is easy. If you have every single vote from every single person
suffering a catastrophic health event, you would have only a very small percentage of the vote.
If you have the vote of every single diabetic and every single person who
gets a physical, you have enough to win any election.
And this is all about getting re elected. The hell with the country.
Our forefathers were right when they said that access to the public trough would destroy our country.
We are there.
As Rush said once, the Chinese may save us from ourselves by forcing some semblance of financial responsibility on us.