Universal Health Care in the United States
Sorry tech aficionados, I have to take a time out from technology and speak my mind about universal health care in the United States. It’s important that President Obama first address these issues before pushing universal health care.
1) Taxes are out of control. First, each American pays Federal and state income taxes and sales taxes. But what most people don’t consider is that corporations must recoup the money they pay in taxes by raising the cost of the goods and services the sell. This means that the end consumers ultimately pay the corporate taxes as well. Once you start adding up all these numbers, the average American pays anywhere between 60% and 75% of their money, depending on how it’s calculated, to government taxes.
2) One of the main reasons why health care costs are out of control is because our legal system is out of control. If we hide these costs inside the federal budget, we mask the problem rather than fixing it. First FIX THE REAL PROBLEMS, then we can talk about federalizing health care. This problem is perpetuating itself because we keep voting lawyers into congress, and lawyers don’t seem to have a problem with all profits from every industry ultimately ending up in the hands of lawyers.
3) Figure out how UHC is going to work by first fixing Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. I’ve seen different estimates for impending doom, but even the most optimistic forecasts for these programs don’t look good. It comes down to a fundamental reality of group collaboration. The full natural lifecycle of any entity is from struggle to success to bureaucracy to failure. No entity, whether it be corporate or government, is exempt from this natural evolution. I know there are companies that reinvent themselves and prolong their natural lifecycle, but all successful entities ultimately collapse under their own bureaucracy. What is the oldest standing government? We, as Americans, can stagger the damage caused by essential reinvention by following the example of our constitutional authors and placing as much power in state and local government as possible. Then we have state-by-state competition to sharpen the system. We have monopoly laws, but they can’t protect us from a federal monopoly. This is a fundamental flaw that will destroy us if we continue down this path.
4) Historically, congress has proven to be the creators of knee-jerk regulation. This is why even our allies have strained relationships with the USA. Our foreign policies reverse themselves every time a new president enters office. Do you want your health care mandated by an institution that is going to reverse its policies on virtually everything the instant the public is sick of Democrat rule and votes a Republican majority back into office?
Please, President Obama, fix fundamental problems first, then we can talk about universal health care.