Were taking a break from our series today to tackle a political and social issue. The series on making visitors welcome will resume tomorrow.
This past month has been rather raucous in the country as the debate over government sponsored health care and general health care reform rages. Today, I offer my personal take on the topic. Like most of Congress, I haven't read the health care bills or their provisions. I don't have to.
All I need to know is that a country that allows it's government to take over major portions (or any for that matter) of industries is setting itself up for massive failures of not only government, but also the economy and society. As more and more of a population becomes dependent on government programs, the government itself will eventually have to start printing more money to supply the growing programs. That in turn destroys the economy by weakening the currency and driving businesses that have to compete with government out of business. Society fails, because it becomes reliant upon the failing government to provide the entitlements it can't afford.
That's why government sponsored health care is bad for the country. Sure, the current system isn't perfect. However, by taking away the freedom of the consumer to make demands of the private sector, the government will destroy incentives to improve the health care system, and remove a major player from the table -- the consumer. Free market societies are built so that the consumer can vote with their dollar on whether a product should succeed or fail. It takes time to weed out the bad stuff, but innovators and free thinkers rise to the top with the best products for everyone.
Once a government puts its claws into an industry, that industry will suffer from a lack of imagination and innovation. The status quo becomes the driving force of the industry. And, as we all know, striving for the status quo always results in mediocrity which will eventually lead to system failure.
So, what's the solution to all the health care problems? First, we must pressure Congress not to pass any health care reform. They must let the market fix the issues themselves. You can find your Representatives and Senators, then contact them to tell them to leave health care alone.
If (and it's a big if) government can leave health care alone, the next thing Congress needs to do is to impose a sunset for medicare and social security so they expire in twenty years. This provides the public plenty of time to wean off the two systems. We are not entitled to them, and must learn to do things the old fashioned way. We must earn our living, not rely on government to care for us. This will be the hardest part, because our nature is to go for the free ride. But, if we don't we will destroy our children's future by saddling them with even more of our debt.
Now, the game is back in our laps. At this point, we must become even more vocal than we are to Congress. We, as a public, must put pressure on those in health care to create new systems and plans that real people can afford. We must put pressure on doctors and hospitals to bring costs down.
Realistically, the best health policy would be to allow the public to pay out of pocket for standard office visits, and reserve health insurance for major medical needs such as heart attacks, cancer, accidents, etc. This essentially resets the medical scene to more how it was 30 years ago.
But, we can't stop there. We must become diligent to a) keep health care in the private sector, and b) to shop around for the best deals, being very vocal about what we like and don't like.
Friends, this is health care that works. Letting the free market decide always works. It's always efficient, which is something we can NEVER say about government.
And, now for the elephant in the room. Elephants are the animal that has the best memory of all the animal kingdom. We need to become elephant-like with our congressional representatives and senators. Many have been in office too long. They no longer think like you or I. They need to be returned home during the next election cycle, never to return to Washington D.C. as a lawmaker.
Power is a very addictive substance, and too many of our current lawmakers have become addicts in need of the recovery program of being voted out of office. In recent years, Congress has had terrible approval ratings, yet the public has always thought their personal congressman or woman was one of the best, so they re-elected them time and time again while blaming the others for the problems.
So, let's get elephant-like. We need to remember the names of the violators of our freedoms in Congress and the White House. And, when 2010 comes around, and 2012 after it, begin voting out those who have violated our trust.
Lastly, I have one more thing to say to those of us who are upset over the way our government has been abusing it's power. We have come under great fire lately for the loud and angry tones we have carried in public discussions. I believe that on one hand it has been appropriate for our leaders to know how upset we are at their poor decisions, but now is the time for a different approach on our part. Now that we have our leaders' attention, we need to engage them in polite, intelligent, well-thought out discussions. If we're going to argue points in the health care bill, we need to know what we're talking about. We cannot rely on third party information. We must take the high road, and we must be credible.
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