“Free” Health Care
This morning on ABC there was a story about a group of doctors in Los Angeles that had decided to offer free medical care to the first 1500 people through the door. Is that a good idea? Sure, why not. It was their choice to do so and their money to burn; it’s a free country. The kicker is that they were SWAMPED with people (far more than the 1500 showed up) and people were waiting all night for a place in line to get a coveted ticket. Now, I’m sure that many if not most of those people had legitimate reasons to be in line and perhaps some relatively serious medical issues, but I think we can still say that this is a pretty good illustration of what happens when medical care is advertised as “free”. People will show up to take advantage of what they perceive as a free ride whether they really need it or not. I would be willing to bet that there were plenty of people in that line that were actually in financial need (and for that reason I applaud the doctors and medical professionals involved), but I am also of the mind that there were probably some freeloaders in the line. This is really a microcosm of what will eventually happen if the Congress passes this ABYSMAL health care plan that is on the board right now. Once the private insurers are out of the way (and that WILL happen under this legislation regardless what the president says), the public option will rule and everyone will be on the same coverage… meaning anyone can go to the doctor for any minor illness or injury. No matter the reason, they will show up, because it’s free… they don’t have to worry about the consequences at all. Got a runny nose, go see a doctor. Got a small cut, go see a doctor… you see what I mean. There are so many other ways to solve this issue. Even giving money to hospitals to cover people that don’t have health care under certain circumstances would be more palatable that this…
Anyway, that’s my quick observation on it…
Get out your check books
Actually, no need to even do that thanks to the scam known as withholding.
Check it out America: Obama is looking at raising your taxes to pay for the “explosion” in the budget deficit. Let’s be honest. To pay for all the bailouts, “Cash for Clunkers” money and health care reform your taxes will have to go up. There is simply no other source of revenue for the government that is as easy to tap and as easy to increase as the income tax. And Obama’s administration is not just taxing the rich. No sir. He’s going to hit middle class America with tax increases. That’s you and that’s me.
The bottom line is that Obama has taken full advantage of a Democratic Congress and spineless Republican leadership to move America even closer to socialism. He’s done it by spending money like a drunken sailor on shore leave in Thailand. The good news is that now middle-class America will finally take its head out of its ass and realize that when Democrats will take only the rich, they are talking about middle-class America. The bad news is that it may be too late to stop what is already in motion. Let this be a lesson to you America. Pay attention to what your government is doing.
(Side note: I think my favorite line in the article is this one “If we want an economy that’s going to grow in the future, people have to understand we have to bring those deficits down. And it’s going to be difficult, hard for us to do. And the path to that is through health care reform,” Geithner said. How does SPENDING BILLIONS on health care reform bring down a deficit? It doesn’t!!!! This is probably the worst attempt at working the party line into an answer in the history of politics. It’s hard to believe that Geithner is the best person to head up the Treasury if he doesn’t understand simple economic concepts. Spending creates deficits; it doesn’t bring them down. I totally agree that deficits need to be eliminated for the economy to achieve robust growth. But I disagree with the idea that spending outrageous amounts of money to make health care worse is the way to do it.)