Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Health Care is a right.

We do have a right to health care. Nobody can deny us health care. We just can't demand that somebody else provide it to us for free or paid for by someone else. Imagine if I were to opine that because I have the right of free speech, that the Government must give me a computer and internet access, free of charge. I'm sure there would be many out there that would agree with me and would fight to make it so. Next I'll move to the right to keep and bear arms. How many of the people that agreed with me above would totally disagree that the Government must pay for my firearm and ammunition? The fact that something is a right does not mean that it is the Government's responsibility to provide the means to exercise that right.

Before everybody thought they had to go to the doctor for a cough, they took care of themselves. There were home remedies people could rely on and there were also patent medicines that worked. Our Government has made a prescription needed to obtain most medications, causing us to require a licensed doctor to prescribe them. Our Government has allowed frivolous lawsuits and multi-million dollar awards, requiring doctors to purchase expensive insurance and to do unnecessary tests which further increase the cost of health care. If we used our auto insurance the way we use health insurance, an oil change would cost $250 or more. Because of the way we use health insurance, procedures have a cost that is in no way related to the service. Insurance users don't even care what a procedure will cost, they only care about the co-pay and their premiums. They pay the premiums and then the insurance company and the doctor work out the actual cost. If we were to return to using health insurance the way we use other insurance, the prices would be closer to a true free-market system.

One of the reasons we have states instead of just one large conglomerate is because we are not all alike and we all have different ideas of how things should be done. Each state has the ability to test methods to see what works and what doesn't. When methods are found that work well, they can be shared amongst the others states. This is was how our founding fathers intended this Republic to work.