My view of the President's Health Care Take Over

Because I see this blog, in part, as a historic record for the Brown family, I thought it would be good to go on the record with my views on today’s incredible health care law.

What our President and this Congress has done concerning health care is revolutionary. It’s neither evolutionary nor just a simple adjustment. In fact it is not even a major adjustment; it is an about-face. No it’s not even that, it’s a change to the very foundation of our two hundred year old health care free market system. Our government has just taken control of over a fifth of our economy, made Insurance companies like utilities, and has forced individuals to buy a service at risk of inflated costs or severe penalties, including use of the IRS. It includes a unique use of terms to allow our government to do this. For example, though the IRS is involved the act does not "tax" us but instead "fines" us. Either way a penalty or cost is forced on working Americans. The only way to avoid a "cost" or "penalty" is to not work! That! Thanks to the new health care system is the only inexpensive way to get health care.

Hopefully those that have forced this incredible "Act" of law upon us are well intentioned, since it has some worthy goals. None less worthy than health care for all. However, whether well intentioned or not (does it really matter) I have no doubt that it is naive at its core and will likely hurt our nation. Since this is a fundamental change to our system, if it fails it will affect our very foundation.

Some might say, what’s the big deal? Let’s give it a try at least for a while. If it doesn't work then we repeal it. With all do respect this is a naive position. In the history of our nation we have never once repealed an entitlement. Not once! Ronald Reagan once said that the closes thing to eternal life in this world is a government program.

Medicare and Social Security are in dire need of a foundational change, not health care. Any young adult knows that Social Security won't be there for them without change; Warnings have been given to the "next generation" for years. Why is that? It's because these two entitlements can not survive on its own structure. It needs to change and now. It is irresponsible to ignore it and with each passing year the solution will become more painful to employ. That is obvious to me. It seems our politicians are either not interested in change (Republicans) or they want only to change the here and now without regard to future ramifications (Democrats). My guess is that congress will continue to "adjust" Medicare and Social Security until it falls under its own weight. And it will fall. When it falls it will have a devastating impact on our nation, just like a dam that unexpectedly caves under its own weight. My guess is that congress will continue to "adjust" Medicare and Social Security rather than address its core issues. I really think they got it backwards. We should "adjust" health care and revolutionarily change Social Security and Medicare.

I can't help but ask myself why congress would ignore these two entitlements but want very much to add Health Care as an entitlement. Perhaps it's control. As the saying goes, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Or, perhaps they really think it will make a difference. I sure don't. I have multiple reasons for this. Anyone would be sufficient in itself to justify this statement. But I will just use one.

Our nation has essentially been following the same free market health care system since its inception. Over the last half century or so we have added Insurance. This has made some adjustments to our health care process. But it did not change the fundamental principle of medical care. And, that is that everyone one is responsible for his own health care. Of course employers provided health care for their employees, but I believe that this evolved because of capitalism not the goodness of their hearts. That is employers had to provide it for competitive reasons. In other words it was free market driven.

The free market system creates a self leveling system. It's as much a law of the universe as the law of gravity. Nothing equalizes the economy as well. We have over two hundred years of history to prove this. We have the unparalleled success of America in the world to prove this. We have the failure or poor performance of every other economics system in the world in comparison to the free market to prove this. What drives the health care issue is that some people don't trust the employers or insurance companies as much as they do government. I don't understand why people would trust government more than any business, our forefathers certainly didn't, but I digress.

The fact is that we have the greatest health care that any man has ever had. Think about that for a minute. In all of history no one has had the kind of care that we experience today. The poorest people in our nation have far better health care than our grandparents had or even our parents.  And, America is one of the primary reasons the world has benefited from health care advances. This does not sound like a system that needs a revolutionary change. Adjustments are welcome. And, I know that if we can let the free market work everyone will benefit.

It seems so clear to me, but what do I know I'm just a common every day Dad.

Message about this blog

Within the next month I intend to write to this blog much more frequently. I will be including stories of relatives, funny and explanative stories about my family, and interesting pictures new, old, and very old. I have much to share about our interesting ancestry and historical events related to our family. When I pick a subject to blog about I will try to use it to bring different events both pass and present into the same story. I will also be including some personal thoughts on such things as politics, faith, sports, and made up stories for illustrative purposes. These would reflect the humble opinion of a common Dad, but I believe it is important if for that reason only.  Thank you for visiting my blog.