Ok, Ok,- I had no choice but to weigh in on the passage of a national health care plan. It's been talked about since the days of Teddy Roosevelt. Attempts to put one in place were enacted by Presidents, and defeated by Congress. No plan seemed good enough, none covered what every elected official wanted to see in it, until now. Now we have a plan voted on by Congress, signed by the President, and put in place among the Code of Law of these United States. Whoopee.
Is my apathy that evident? Did the "whoopee" line point to that? Sorry, but the figgen law is two thousand pages long!! Who read it ? Who fully understands it? Not me! Not the Goodfella! Why? It was written so nobody could. That's the game. Now, I'm not knockin' President Obama for trying. The plan actually has a good point or two, like no cap on coverage, and pre-existing conditions don't count. Hey, it's a start. But, one CNN reporter who is trying to read it, noticed a paragraph about student loans and the ability to obtain one buried in the health care law! What the hell has this got to do with health care? What other kind of crap is in there? No barbecuing on Wednesdays? Who knows?
This was just about passing something. Anything to make it look like the Capitol Hill mob is doing something. I blame all of them- not just the Democrats- not just the Republicans- all of them. It's an abomination of BS. It adds to the millions of pages of laws, many of which we don't need, and brings about a whole new level of bureaucracy. "Hello, thanks for calling the Office of National Health Care, please press one for English, two Spanish, three for Vietnamese, four for Swedish, five for Polish, six for.....and so on, and then press, one if you need a doctor, two if you need a band-aid, three if your hospital threw you out, four if Blue Cross sent a hit man to your house"...yada yada yada. You follow?
On top of all that, it's mandatory by 2014 (why that year?) to have health insurance, like it or not. You will be fined, and sued, and jailed if you don't, all tracked and enforced by that delightful government agency known as the IRS! Bet you didn't know that ! See, I read a little of it! Of course, the IRS is always a contributor to stress free living and better health, isn't it? "Excuse. Mr. Health Officer, my husband had a heart attack, because he was harassed by the IRS for not buying a health plan. Is there anything I can do?" "Well, he'll get his health care in prison", said the Health Officer, as the man is handcuffed and taken away by the IRS. Yes, it's a cruel joke.
Now I could go on a couple thousand pages, but lets face it, yes we need a health plan, or at least some regulation of the current conditions, but not this mess. Will this new plan pay the doctors what they deserve, but stop them from sending you a bill for that extra few hundred bucks the insurance didn't pick up? C'mon, all you MD's out there know you do it. I know, it's just a little extra for the BMW payment. How about "gouging" by the hospitals. Will it stop them from charging $10.00 for a Tylenol? Maybe they can just charge $4.00 for it. It's the same Tylenol tablet you and I pay 10 cents for. Think $4.00 is Ok for you hospital admins? How about this- I don't have to have a health plan, and if i don't have one, then I pay cash- no IRS, no fines, no jail. Of course you probably need all our money because the insurance companies lobbied for it. The pre-existing thing did it, didn't it?
Listen folks, we have a national health plan. It's called Medicare. Just put everyone on it. You pay a sliding scale premium based on income, and if you don't want it before age 65, that's up to you. A little control on the doctors and hospitals "reign of terror" on profits, and why would'nt it work? Two pages, not two thousand. Of course Medicare is going broke, but that's because the government has a addiction to spend money, and that the population is aging. The new plan won't go broke or add to our deficit will it? Wake up, the dream is over, if that's what you think.
Nothing is perfect- not my plan, not your plan, not the plans of many. The plan we just enacted though, will be a disaster to implement and control. At this rate, we will all be working for the government. My application for the IRS is going in tomorrow. They say if you haven't got your health, you have nothing, and according the what our politicians gave us, they don't have anything either.
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