Health Care

So, I haven't posted on here in forever. Kind of lost my interest in political blogging, just so damn depressing. Anyway, Morales asked for my assessment of the health care debacle, so, here we go...(originally an email sent to Morales)

Granted, I haven't read the bill, its over 2000 god damn pages long. So everything I know about it is gathering other peoples opinions on it, and making my own decisions.

I'll start with the constitutionality of bill. A number of states are challenging whether the bill is constitutional. In the strictest sense, there is no way in hell it is. But the constitution doesn't stand for its original intent anymore. I wish it did. Anyway, pretty much every piece of legislation congress passes they use the commerce clauseto give themselves authority. The commerce clause says that congress can regulate and legislate interstate commerce. With this bill, they are legislating 1/6 of the US economy. Thats a shit ton of commerce. Anyway, the biggest constitutional sticking point it the individual mandate. This bill requires every breathing American citizen to purchase insurance from a private company, or they'll fine you. This is probably the biggest anti-liberty action in US history (aside from slavery). The federal government is not allowed to MAKE you purchase any product just as a condition of being a citizen. The slippery slope argument is that if the government makes you buy insurance, then you'll be forced to only buy cars from American auto makers, or forced to buy widget X from Company Z. The government simply can't make you do that. You'll hear the argument that the government makes you buy auto insurance. This argument doesn't hold water. You aren't required to buy auto insurance just to be a citizen. You are required if you use the privelage of public roads. If you were to have a vehicle only driven on private property, you wouldn't need insurance. Also, the only auto insurance you're required to purchase is liability, i.e. the potential damage you cause to other people and things. Since you are taking that risk to the public as a driver, this makes sense. It doesn't compare anything to Health insurance.

There is also worries relating to the your right to privacy. Many parts of the constitution protect your right to privacy, mainly the 4th and 5th ammendment. With the government taking more and more control of health care, it becomes more and more likely they'll have more access to your private medical information, which is no business of theirs. There is no reason for the government to know that I have a heart condition. Its a private personal matter.

The other constitutional issues at hand are the 9th and 10th ammendment. The 9th ammendment severely limits the power of the federal government to what is explicitly written in the constitution. Nowhere in the constitution does it say the government is to provide health care for Citizens. The 10th ammendment gives any power not explicitly in the constitution to the states, i.e. states rights. That is why I have no constitutional issues with Massachusets having a similar health care system that this new bill creates. They are given the right to do such things in their own state but the 10th ammendment. But there is no constitutional mandate for a federal health system. (there is also no constitutional mandate for a department of education, among other departments, but that is a whole other can of worms I'm not opening.)

OK, on to the non constitutional scholar stuff. First of all, this bill creates another massive federal bureacracy along the lines of Social Security and Medicare. How many government programs do you know that run efficiently (I know one, the military). How many government programs run on or under budget (waiting, waiting, let me know if you find one). How many federal programs are overrun with corruption (Lots). What makes you think this government program will be any different? Social Security is on its way to being broke. Medicare is on its way to being broke. Where do we plan on finding funding for another massively bloated bureacracy.

Groups pushing for this government takeover of health care say that our health care system is broken. Really? Why do people come from the world over to attend our medical facilities, our medical schools, our clinics. Did you know something like 24 of the last 25 nobel prizes in medicine have been awarded to Americans. You hear about the "evil drug companies". First of all, companies can't be evil, it just isn't possible (another thing I could write about at long length.) These drug companies take millions (and Billions) of dollars searching for and discovering cures to diseases, that are then mass produced to save people across the world. Yeah, they make money, but they provide the greatest medical advances in world history. They aren't doing this with the government, they use private enterprise to move the world forward. Its other countries thats health care systems are broken. People die in western europe because of the rationing of services. Canadians have to wait 12 months to get surgery for blown out knees, replacement hips. Doctors leave these countries to come to the United States because they are allowed the freedom to practice as they want, perform great things, and make money. Government run systems just cause a cluserfuck.

Most doctors give you a discount if you pay cash. Why do you think this is? Because they don't want to deal with bureacratic bullshit, from either insurance companies or the government. More and more doctors don't accept medicare becase Medicare screws them in the payments. They see no incentive to have a bigger market of customers if its just gonna screw them in the long run. One thing this bill does is dump more people on to the Medicare rolls. Without incentive, where is the innovation? Without innovation, we get no progress. You might also have less people entering the medical profession and others leaving the profession because there is no incentive. What happens when supply goes down? Demand goes up. Health care rationing becomes reality, because there are less doctors to perform medical work. Less supply also leads to higher costs. One goal if this bill is to lower costs of health care. Thats an admirable goal. But the way they've approached it is an epic failure. Costs will not go down with rationing of service. The market DOES NOT work that way.

Are there improvements that could be made to the health care industry. Hell yes. Suggestions from Republicans that would lower costs make sense. You know right now it is not possible for you to buy insurance across state lines. This is an unnecessary limit on supply. (Remember, lack of supply=higher costs). Allowing the purchase of insurance across state lines increase supply, puts more pressure on insurance companies to cut costs. You won't find the ability to buy insurance across state lines anywhere in this bill. Another issue is tort reform. Health care costs are higher now than they've ever been partially because of how litigous our society has become. Doctors have to spend upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars on insurance to protect them from someone suing them because they've made a small error. Cut back on lawsuits, cut back on costs.

Thats all I've got for now. I'm sure I've missed some aspects of it. (Notice I didn't even go into abortion). Any questions, fire away. An article I've read recently, covers another aspect of this which I didn't go over, about what will happen in to the US if we are no longer the world leader (on anything). Read it if you like. http://article.nationalreview.com/428996/tattered-liberty/mark-steyn