Get Government Out
of Our Lives
The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the so-called
“Obamacare” laws are being attacked by those on the right who claim that it’s
just another example of the government eroding your freedoms.
This is true.
It seems, however, that this righteous indignation is not
all encompassing. The same folks who deride the incessant intrusion of Uncle
Sam into your business are also the first to cry foul if their own precious
entitlements are threatened. Be it social security or oil subsidies, there are
SOME government handouts that even Republicans can love, no?
Some mandates seem quite reasonable, do they not? For
instance, states that require mandatory car insurance don’t inflame these
conservatives. Why? Is mandatory health insurance not the same?
The simple fact is that ALL of us use health care, but only
the insured are actually paying for it. If you get hit by an uninsured motorist
(and you don’t have comprehensive coverage), you are out of luck in getting
your car repaired at no cost to you. If that same accident injures a person
without health insurance, he or she is not left by the roadside to die. They
are transported to the hospital—where---you guessed it---the costs of caring
for that individual are borne by everyone who IS paying health insurance
premiums.
The healthcare law would have been stronger had there had
been a PUBLIC OPTION. This was scuttled for the sake of compromise, but without
a government option (to keep prices reasonable), the health insurance companies
can truly charge whatever they like.
But I digress.
So, let’s take the side of conservatives—and propose that
government get OUT OF OUR LIVES!!!!! The only rule of this game, though, is
that you cannot pick and choose which government programs you’d like to
survive---to do so would brand you to be the hypocrite (albeit unknowing) that
you are. Here goes:
1)
Social Security---It’s the BIG ONE folks! No
more government checks to keep Grandma from living on the street. She will now
be unable to remain independent—and will be moving in with YOU or will be
homeless. You pick.
2)
Medicare/Medicaid---here’s another big one. Who
ARE these people anyway? Someone will take care of them…right?
3)
FDA—the long and arduous process of getting SAFE
drugs to market is killing jobs. Let’s adopt the Chinese model of letting
anyone market anything. This will surely kill people, but not jobs. And with
fewer people looking for jobs (after dying from unsafe medicines), the
unemployment rate will go down.
4)
EPA—let’s forget for a moment that a Republican
(Nixon) gave us this one. Scrap the pesky requirements that companies refrain
from poisoning our air and water. The costs associated with protecting our
environment are hurting corporate profits. What more reason do we need?
5)
FAA-Forget the airplane inspections and the
excessive air traffic control. The resulting fatalities that accrue from unsafe
planes or congested skies are merely the cost of doing business.
I could go on and on forever, but you get the idea.
Someday, we will all cease to be afraid of labels and
realize that the most efficient AND ethical form of government is neither
capitalism nor socialism. It is the hybrid of both.
Social democracy.
Say it.
Social democracy.
It’s not evil.
It’s essentially what we have now—a partnership between
government and free enterprise. Each needs to keep the other in check.
No one advocates for totalitarian government----we know it
doesn’t work. From corruption to lack of incentive and sheer inefficiency,
communism or socialism has been tried—and the verdict is in. It has failed.
However, just as excessive government is a threat to our
freedom, unbridled capitalism (while arguably “efficient”)—has as its hallmark
feature the reality of: zero compassion. Its Darwinian approach surely rewards
winners, but makes no concessions for the loser—in this case, the most
vulnerable in our society. Capitalism doesn’t care about the poor, the infirm,
those out of work or in need of job training or a helping hand.
Every single government agency has appeared as the direct
result of bad behavior on the part of capitalists. Few fat cats investing their
riches would ever think to do so without the safeguards put in place by the
SEC, a government agency created in the wake of excessive fraud in the
securities and public markets—even these anti-government types know that this
is a service to investors. While not perfect by any means, the government is
merely trying to stay one step ahead of those whose primary objective is
finding loopholes---a nice term for cheating the spirit of the regulation,
whatever it is.
The interstate highway system, built in the 1950’s, may be
the best example of private/public partnerships to build something that no
private entity could or would undertake. The boost to our nation’s economy was
across all sectors—and it took a government project to make it work. Horrors!
Healthcare is another sector where government involvement is
absolutely necessary. The primary reason is because without someone watching
the store, there is no pressure to keep prices down—and the consumer’s choice
is either severely limited by geography or circumstances (sudden, expected
illness or injury). No one following a
catastrophic health episode is in a position to “shop” for the best deal.
A $100 plastic bedpan (whose true “value” may be $1) causes
no worry, because “the insurance company” is picking up the cost. Unlike shopping for, say, a new
car, people don’t generally shop around for a doctor. Thus, the physician has
little incentive to keep fees low. In fact, the insurance company’s nebulous
“ceiling” for appropriate charges for each conceivable service (ever on the
rise) is the sole consideration. A lack
of competition and inability to move from insurance company to insurance
company (due to employer’s choice of provider or pre-existing conditions or
both) means that the carriers have free reign to jack up premiums.
Which of course, they do, with impugnity.
That’s why a public option makes so much sense. Insurance
companies need to make money. It’s not in the country’s best interest to
squeeze them so hard that they exit the system. If that happens, we truly do
have socialized medicine—not optimal.
Here’s what should happen:
1)
A panel of industry experts settles on a “fair”
rate of return for insurance companies. It may be 10%, it may be 20%. A level
of ROI that would satisfy any shareholder. Add a percentage or two above
that—and we have competitive wiggle room. Incentive for staying in the game and
incentive to deliver efficiencies to the marketplace.
2)
The public option is established with costs that
would be above this level. This way, the U.S. Government makes itself
intentionally non-competitive, but serves the role of insuring against price
gouging. Private insurers cannot raise rates above the government levels
without losing their customer base. That’s why building in a fair rate of
return makes it attractive to be competitive.
3)
The public “shops” for coverage, with Uncle Sam
acting merely as a safety net and option of last resort. As the highest cost
provider, their role becomes one of “watchdog” rather than that of “provider”
Maybe someone more learned than I can shoot holes though
this, but I see no reason why it wouldn’t work. Fair prices for services,
incentives for insurers to stay in business and a mandated government threshold
that discourages participation in the federal program.
We cannot “opt out” of healthcare---our society demands it
be provided, no matter what your means. Why, then, do conservatives argue for
freedom of choice to carry or not carry health insurance?
The system described above would represent the social
democracy model at its best: providing a safety net while encouraging
competition and discouraging price gouging.
But maybe it cannot be implemented because it makes too much
sense.
It’s too rational to be embraced by politicians on either
side of the spectrum. That’s because the ends of the spectrum are all that
remains. There is no one left in the middle, where reasonable people can
compromise and “progress” isn’t a dirty word.
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