When applying criticism, it’s often useful to point out something positive in advance, to “soften” things up…as I rarely do this when criticizing the Obama Administration, I thought this might perhaps be somewhat welcome.

He is consistent with his narcissism and as yet unfulfilled “promises.” Hey, it’s something!

He’s been issuing warnings about Universal health care and true to form, they’ve rolled out H.R. 676.

It’s an expansion of Medicare in the form of a Single Payer System which is a bit different than the European style universal health care but make no mistake, it’s just as restrictive, stupid and expensive.

A few of the “features”

1.   Coverage is cradle to grave for every single person in the United States.

2.   Pre-existing conditions will no longer be applicable regardless of health.

3.   No more co-pays OR deductibles.

4.   ALL Prescription medications will be covered.

5.   ALL dental AND eye coverage will be included.

6.   Mental health AND Substance abuse coverage will be FULLY covered.

7.   Long term care AND Nursing home stays will be covered.

8.   You will always choose your own doctors and hospitals…that is, the ones who actually stay in     business.

9.   Costs of care will be determined by a ‘sliding scale’ fee schedule. 

10. They claim the Administration will be ‘easy and painless’

11. Plan is portable and goes where you go, even if you change jobs.

12. Greatly increases the services for those over the age of 65.

13. Promises to ‘never again let Corporation will be able to “deny” you care ever again! (of course not, it will be determined by the Government!!)

Sounds fabulous, sign me up! And while you’re at it, I’ll take a new car, and a boob job.  Why not? this is surely the death of personal responsibility with no co-pays, no deductibles and full coverage of everything you can think of. What could be wrong with this utopian health care plan?

For starters, “Cadillac” health care for everyone in the country will only be paid for by those who actually contribute to the economy.  I can tell you for a fact, most of us who do contribute are sick and tired of being taxed to death and I certainly don’t feel like paying for health care for the masses already leeching from the public system, Octomoms and their zillions of kids and more than likely, illegal aliens. This is a surefire recipe for bankruptcy. 

Next, the bill “decides” on the Physicians salary, prevents them from taking ownership in their own practices and determines fee schedules and schedule of payments, by a sliding scale.  I have one question then:  Knowing that medicine is a business that requires extensive education, a certain flair for management of both people and resources, what rational person would knowingly subject themselves to the commitment of “becoming” a Doctor, knowing that this would be the setting in which they’d be practicing?

Are they completely OUT of their minds? 

Many Doctors own their own practices, this will end that.  How, exactly?  That goes against everything we’re about as Americans.

In our capitalistic nation, we don’t have a health-care system but rather, we have a health-care marketplace where insurance, medical services, and pharmaceuticals are bought and sold. Government spending, taxation and regulation impact this marketplace profoundly. The current Medicare/Medicaid is there for the truly needy and elderly and/or disabled.  Others have the opportunity to purchase insurance through their employers or individually. 

Politicians keep whining about the cost of health care going up every year but what they’re not telling you is much of that is due to waste/over regulation in the system as well as the increases in malpractice insurance that MUST be passed to the patient in order to justify the Physician’s fixed overhead expenses. (Although some of their expenses are variable, most tend to be fixed these days)

One way to LOWER the cost of health care overall is to overhaul the tort system and the anti-trust laws.  Stick with arbitration for the truly negligent cases and get rid of the frivolous lawsuits that are currently shredding the system to pieces. I guarantee you, as our Congress and Senate is mainly made up of attorneys, they don’t want to hear this and would rather throw tax money, our money. at this problem than accept the time to overhaul these idiotic laws.

As much as possible, health coverage should be in the hands of the consumer. Medical savings accounts, flexible spending

plans, etc., allowing individuals to set aside portions of their income on a pre-taxed basis for co-pays, deductibles, dental, eye, prescriptions, emergencies and other incidentals. There are various types of flexible plans and companies that will administrate the paperwork for you.  In  certain cases you can actually shift yourself into a more favorable tax bracket just by setting that money aside, pre-taxed, to be spent later.

As employers are now having to deal with the tax and administration hassle of health insurance, wouldn’t it be better to allow individuals to also pay for premiums with pre-tax dollars like corporations do? 

Last but not least, the idea of removing co-pays and deductibles falls into the “what in the hell are they thinking” category.  What incentive does a person have to be careful with over-utilization if there is no tie to their wallet? Since this thing is whipping right through the pipeline in congress, I can’t WAIT to see what their “supposed” added tax will be. 

Everyone, conservative or not needs to be ready for the big reveal regarding the new healthcare tax poo sandwich, because we are all going to have to take a big tasty bite.