by M. Sidney Wallace
I saw an Email from a reader that asked a simple question. The lady asked, “Just what does a single payer health care system mean?” The question goes directly to the heart of our national decision. On the surface my initial thoughts were of the financial nature, but it goes deeper than that.
The national media (print and broadcast television) want everyone to think it is about providing equal health care service throughout the nation. That is a canard for a political power grab. The president and liberal Democrats in congress want everyone else in the nation to pay. President Obama has repeatedly stated he just wants to spread the wealth around. Liberals believe that wealthy people have historically taken an unfair advantage of the poor. They believe that past successful people have received their wealth unjustly from less than fair methods.
Let us look at a few facts about a single payer health care system that are just around the corner. On the surface this is a very noble goal because no one wants to see another suffering with poor health. Current life styles and customs make this goal impossible. However, liberals eagerly change anything for others because it makes them feel better about themselves. What will be eventually required to provide good health care for everyone? Here are just a few and I am sure you could add many more.
- Everyone will have to change their life style for the sake of national health care. No sugar added cereal, no soft drinks, no red meat, no pop corn, no fried food, no coffee, no BBQ, no ice cream, no cookies, no cigarettes, no alcohol, no anything that some unnamed person in the government has determined is unhealthy to some other individual.
- Everyone will avoid spending time at the beach or outdoor recreation areas because of the danger of skin cancer from sunburns.
- Everyone will share their homes with the poor so all can be warm and protected from the cold of winter during the winter months.
- Everyone will share their homes with the poor so all can be kept cool on hot summer days.
- Everyone will change their life styles and work equally for national health care as the primary goal in life. Another unnamed government bureaucrat will not allow resources to be squander on anything or anyone that does not improve the health care of everyone.
- Everyone must walk or ride a bicycle to work because exercise is the better alternative and will eliminate over weight citizens.
A government that is the single entity making payment for all health care service is also a government that will also decide to whom and for what they are paying. If a government bureaucrat judges someone worthy, the government will spend the money they determine reasonable. If the government bureaucrat determines that the individual has been unworthy for past activities, then services are denied.
For me, I prefer to make my own decisions on what health care I need. I do not want some unnamed government bureaucrat a thousand miles away making the decisions. The late Soviet Union was a single payer health care system. Any one read George Orwell’s 1984 lately?