Harford County Republican Women

Universal Health Care Won’t Care

In 1965 the Medicare and Medicaid Acts were passed. Individual health insurance for those over 65 became obsolete and eventually illegal. Costs went up, bringing about an economic obstacle to private health insurance for all other groups .

In response the Nixon Administration passed the HMO Act introduced by, then, freshman Senator Ted Kennedy in 1973. Medicare, Medicaid and the HMO act ruined the market for affordable, individual health insurance while adding a heavier burden to employers. Unrestricted choice in health care has also become a thing of the past. Encumbering layers of bureaucracy, restrictions, regulations, paperwork and escalating premiums would become the health care system that we have come to know.

Now that we understand how we got here let us talk about force. Some years ago the ability of citizens over 65 to pay for their own health care through private insurance was taken away. During the Clinton administration a provision in the 1997 Balanced Budget Act was introduced that would force doctors who accepted private funds from a Medicare eligible patient to opt out of participation in Medicare for a period of two years. Does this sound like America ?

When we create a program that covers an entire group we must force everyone to participate at an equal level. We must establish a minimum level of health insurance for all participants, while forcing all carriers, doctors and medical facilities to stay in the government system. We must cap fees and premiums. If anyone can do something better than another, it is classified as “fundamental unfairness”, resulting in government stepping in to restrict options or raise taxes to expand benefits. It is never ending.

Now, to manage, regulate and police all of this we will need to add new layers of government. And let’s not forget the lawyers who will be needed for those who experience pain, suffering or death due to delays and limitations to their options.

We will need to figure out how to subsidize the education of those entering the medical profession. Would you spend more than a decade in advanced education, rack up tens of thousands of dollars in debt just so that some bureaucrat could limit what you could charge and tell how to practice your craft?

In talking with your friends and associates ask them if the founders would welcome the heavy hand of government force and restriction in what could be matters of life and death. God allows us free will. Big Brother is annoyed by the concept.