This is a response I wrote to a woman in Wisconsin who feels since her daughter has cancer and is going off their insurance that we, the citizens of the United States owe her full health care coverage. She did not suggest that pre existing conditions be allowed, she did not suggest health insurance costs should be controlled or that frivolous law suits be banned or regulated in some reasonable way. I just couldn't let this one go. Making it personal does not make me approve of socialized medicine in fact it really annoys me. Fight me with facts, don't try to make me feel bad.
Do I feel bad that her daughter, like mine, has a preexisting condition that will make it hard for her as she steps out on her own? Of course I do. That doesn't change the way I feel about health care 'reform' as it's being pushed through with back room deals, payoffs and 1AM votes.
Does Washington really think we aren't paying attention? If they know we are, then the obviously just don't care.
Dear *****,
I frequently hear the statement “the Federal Government will be paying for it”. Excuse me? WE are the federal government! They have no money to spend or mis-spend unless they tax the citizens who pay taxes (keep in mind 65% of Americans don’t pay at all nor do “undocumented workers” (read that illegal aliens) and they are in fact included in the House bill)
Our daughter will be in a similar boat as yours when she moves out of our coverage. But if they move into federal health care, they won’t have coverage for three years anyway, a virtual death sentence. Then when coverage is provided, by necessity, it will be rationed, just like every other tax funded state or federal program is today. Ask anyone who has applied for any kind of assistance from food to fuel.
At the very foundation of your argument for your daughter’s plight is the idea that the entire country should be responsible for her medical care. I don’t believe that should be the case for your daughter, my daughter or anyone else’s. Family should take responsibility for family, not expect others to do so. As much as we need health care reform, and we certainly need that, we need to remember that first and foremost we are responsible for ourselves. I didn’t have my children expecting the government would be their parents and I don’t expect the government to take care of me either.
The actual changes that would help aren’t being discussed because this issue has little or nothing to do with care or compassion. It is in fact a brazen play for even more power invested in the federal government, and relinquishing yet another aspect of our lives to people who think they are smarter than we are who think we all need to be taken care of because we can’t make decisions for ourselves; this is best evidenced by the punitive effect of not buying insurance, opting for Medicare or the ever threatened public option should this bill be passed. Violators will be fined and or jailed. Delightful, I wonder what the quality of health care in jail will be?
There is nothing in the constitution that permits the federal government to force citizens to buy health insurance or any other “product” for that matter, but then the Constitution seems only a passing distraction to this administration.
Something must be done, I agree. But socialized health care is not the answer. It hasn’t really worked anywhere it has been tried save at the lowest level or maintenance type preventative care. Ironically we are already being set up to lose that aspect in the care we have now.
******
I didn't mean to jump on her in particular, but the entitlement aspect of her comment just rubbed me the wrong way once too often. And I really did hold back much of what has been roiling about in my mind these past few days as I watch with renewed dismay the way the people in DC wheel and deal not for us and our benefit but for themselves and their posterity.
It is too much to hope that in the 11th hour they will suddenly hear us and listen to that still small voice of Olympia Snowe from Maine who asks "Why the rush? When no one has read the bill and no one (literally) knows what all is in it or how it will play out---when it doesn't even take effect for a long time----why the rush to pass it before Christmas? Why not let people read and study it and take a more educated vote when congress is back in session? The irrational answer is---we don't want to know what we are voting on. I still say, it doesn't seem real. I don't vote on little things unless I have read them and understand it."
It will be interesting to see if the Democrats really push this through. Make no mistake folks, we are watching.
