Healthcare Rationing -- Inevitable
Sometimes would it not be nice if we could all be as smart as the legislators and the bureaucrats in Washington think they are?
Regarding healthcare, let's be clear:
Neither the Chinese nor the Russians have come forward to fund what was on the table for so long in 2010 in the House or the Senate. Even they cannot afford the perversion that is being forced upon US.
Who of course would be the only ones capable to administer a system of rationing and distribution of the most vital care we can need -- the care of our health. That's your health, your husband or wife's, your father or mother's, your sons or daughters, your nephews or nieces, your uncles or aunt's. It's not over even then because of course there are still those pesky best friends.
Who is up to the task? Only the Central Planners in Washington D.C., of course. They can get some consulting help from a large contingent of Russians who lost their Central Planning positions back in the late 1980's when Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev together helped move Russia from its Communist roots to something better. Some say that is a great place to look because Congress and the great, great, greatest President ever are quickly making US a Communist Nation? Maybe it will bring great jobs. It is a fact that the US is hiring more and more bureaucrats in Washington to administer the Obamacare system since it has become the law of the land.
Many doubt that the government is up to the task. When was the last thing that government did right when it interfered with the natural economy. Why do UPS and Fed Ex outclass the Post Office and still make a profit.? Why is Norfolk Southern highly profitable while Conrail needs government funding? Why was Union Pacific hugely profitable while government controlled Amtrak to date has never been profitable -- maybe not even one day in the future. Why is Medicare and Social Security Bankrupt? Why was Cash for Clunkers a debacle? Have no fear... government run healthcare, with your friends from City Halls, the Counties, the State Bureaucracies and worst of all the Feds running the system, is in the process of happening, despite the long history of government failings in private enterprise. And, yes, it will fail and yes, this time it will be too late to fix.
Perhaps to make the system work better, patients, such as you and I will be able to go to City Hall and stand in line in the City Inspector's Office so the Inspector can determine whether you can see your doctor. Or, perhaps you can go to the PennDot building, like you were going for your driver's license, but with bigger crowds. You could take a number, get an online health test, wait like you would for a photo id, maybe even get your picture taken for your new health card, wait again, and then be interviewed to see if you really have to spend taxpayer dollars on your silly illness? .
Regardless of how Obamacare might be implemented, we should all be wary of government trying to "help" us. Here is one plan.
In much the same fashion as the "new" administration is for income and wealth re-distribution, the "new" administration plans to introduce a new secret weapon by which to fund the 50,000,000 people they claim are under-insured or not insured for adequate healthcare.
They fund these new folks' introduction to healthcare by reductions in Medicare ($528 Billion) and huge taxes regular rich and on those "rich" people who already have insurance policies -- folks like you and me perhaps. No kidding! But, what does that mean?
When pressed, the government, the greatest creator of waste in existence, suggests the new system will get rid of all the waste in Medicare. Why not just get rid of the waste if it exists right now? That's because it is not about waste. It is about stealing money from Medicare because there is nothing in Social Security to steal. Yet, Seniors are not outraged because AARP sold them down the tubes.
Can waste be a code word for prescription drugs, doctor visits and special treatmnents such as dialysis and diagnostic toools such as MRIs. That's good, right, unless your use or your parents' or your relatives' use of the system is the waste of which they speak. Maybe keeping you or I alive is the waste of which they speak.
If aIl this "waste" were not funded, that surely would reduce the cost of healthcare, and because there would be more people dying, the costs would be further reduced, as people died more rapidly. Sounds like a plan? But don't worry, this is America. Perhaps, just perhaps, this President and this Congress would like to "change" it so that America is not quite so American. Then, we would have to worry! To be on the safe side, I would recommend a lot of worry.
Ask yourself if reductions in Medicare sounds like a good idea, especially if you are on Medicare. Ask yourself now while you are thinking about it if reductions in Medicare sound like something you should be concerned about?
Come on, ask yourself?
What is this all about?
Besides Medicare cuts, which mean that half of what is collected in paychecks that formerly went to the Medicare fund, will not go tothe Obamacre fund. Yes, people who never paid into Medicare will beenefit from your Medicare contributions whil your care gets less and less. Congress and the President are not lying this time. There is lots more to not like even if you are not on Medicare.
Why would you want to go to the DMV or to City Hall for a permit to go see your doctor? Why should you have to give up your insurance so that somebody else can have an insurance policy? Wait til this starts playing out more and more. Unless you are dead, it will affect you, and it will hasten your opportunity to die. That's just how it is.
We might call this plan the healthcare re-distribution plan. Just as income redistribution asks you to turn in your wallet so the government can determine what is fair for you to keep, healthcare redistribution asks you to turn in your Medicare plan or your insurance policy today so the government can determine what is fair for you to keep and which part of your healthcare plan should be redistributed to those who are underserved today. That's fair, isn't it. Maybe the government will be giving the homeless your home next. Why should they not live the same as you?
You may conclude that I am hard, and have no concern for people, but you would be wrong on that count. I am 100% for helpless people but I am not for making people helpless.
There are Bureaucrats that would like to shape Obamacare so the end result is that the fifty million new people merely get added to the Medicare rolls? That's the notion many see coming eventually from all of this work in Washington. With the final health bill taking about 2700 sheets of paper, there is more than ample opportunity for governement control, government rules, and of course downright government lying. With the government in charge, can it be better? Do you trust that the Congress and the President will do what is needed so that you can have healthcare? Consider this. If they did nothing, you would still have your healthcare.
Healthcare Rationing
There are simply not enough doctors to treat all Americans in Doctors' offices. The plan is all about you giving up your right to a seat in your doctors office because you pay for an insurance policy or you paid into Medicare. Why? So that a group of others will no longer have to ger care in the Emergency Room and the ER-like adjunct clinics that are set up today for people with no health insurance.
The EMTALA law of 1986 says all people, including illegal aliens are entitled to healthcare in any hospital ER if the hospital takes Medicare patients. So, Obamacare never was about getting care, it is about giving up your seat in the doctor's office so somebody who has not worked like you all your life can take your seat. It's so that you have to go to the ER for primary service while they occupy your seat in your doctor's office. Maybe the ER will be the best place to go. Maybe you will have to go tothe ER as those seats may be the only ones empty.
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A simple way to save money on Medicare / Obamacare if it becomes the universal plan as some think, would be to simply ration Medicare so that those who had been deprived of healthcare for so long can catch up. The Inspectors at City Hall or the clerks at the DMV can handle the rationing, for sure. Perhaps if there are post office cutbacks, there would be another source of people to help ration your care.
Consider that those who had never had real healthcare like you have, are perhaps 100 doctor visits behind. Just like affirmative action seeks redress for the egregious sins of the past, so also can the new healthcare plan by prioritizing the newly covered. After the formerly underserved get their 100 back-visits, then maybe you will be able to make an appointment. Then, the plan can begin to function normally but, with twice as many patients and 1/2 as many doctors. That will certainly save costs and that is the primary goal. But access to healthcare for those that once had access, will be thought of as the good old days.
Healthcare redistribution is designed to make those who have benefited from having Medicare or a healthcare plan for so long that they actually believe they are entitled to it, to see what it feels like to be the under-served.
Of course perhaps that is not what is happening. Perhaps the idea of healthcare rationing is long overdue -- especially when people have been getting as many as four doctor visits per year for years and as many as ten different pharmaceuticals per day in some cases.
Rather than have an expensive doctor decide which treatments or which medications patients need to eliminate to control costs, would it not be better to have a caring government representative handle that burden for the medical community. Again, it may be a City Inspector or a DMV clerk, or a Postal clerk, so these folks would continue getting their salary and benefits and they can help make up for the Doctor shortage. Even if prescribing medicine requires more skill than dispensing stamps, noone can deny that the Postal Workers can get the job done with less expense.
Perhaps the right number of doctor visits is really one visit every three years and say, five pills a week. Since doctors only care about health and wise government employees are the only ones qualified to see the whole picture, you know that costs will not go down if it is left up to the doctors. Doctors want to make you better and if you get better, you will only be a burden later on.
Thankfully the stimulus bill of February 2009 already included funding for the wise government regulators who will have the proper rationing tools to reduce costs to a manageable level. And, if a few patients die, if the government saves money, and the cost to society is less, won't it be worth the change?
It really is the only way to make this wonderful plan to help the under-served work properly. Think about it. Would it not be better to have a wise government employee determining your needs in relation to the needs of others rather than to continue to permit the outright hogging of medical resources for the few while the many go underserved? Are we not interested in being a nation of fairness.
After 65 years of good medical care, should not the Seniors let somebody else, who has not had care all their lives, gain entitlement to what would have been their care in their Senior years? With simple rules like that, fewer doctors will be needed as ordinary government workers will be able to use the regulations to help the process and more importantly to save costs. Regarding health care, all the government needs to do is "just say no,' and the costs will go down as patients die soner.
If people begin to die say five to twenty years sooner, can't we say that would be the necessary breakage so that all Americans, not just a select few can enjoy the benefits of government assured healthcare. The beauty of such a package is that after the City Hall Inspector teams, the DMV teams, and the furloughed Postal teams are depleted, the additional people for the government health rationing team can be selected from the population at large. Thus, in these tough economic times, those who have yet to be gainfully employed can get positions in the Government Rationing Department, thereby solving another issue for the country. Putting people to work for the first time is a noble notion indeed. Isn't having yourself or some loved ones not getting say those last ten years of life worth the benefits?
Just kidding!
I know, everything I just said is silly. Nothing like that can or will ever happen because this is America. The only way something like that could ever happen would be if our busy lawmakers in Congress did not read the parts of the Obamacare bill that more or less prescribe an America Health System in those "silly" terms. .
So, don't worry about those planned reductions in Medicare.
What is the problem with reductions in Medicare anyway if somebody else benefits?
There is no reason to be scared.
Well, on second thought, maybe there is!
