Healthcare choices, think again

By East of Eden

Filed Under General on Jul 16 

In the coming mess that is known as healthcare reform, page 16 of the House version of healthcare reform takes away your right to have private insurance. According to the Investor’s Business Daily “the provision would indeed outlaw individual private coverage. Under the Orwellian header of “Protecting The Choice To Keep Current Coverage,” the “Limitation On New Enrollment” section of the bill clearly states:

“Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day of the year the legislation becomes law.”

So, if you want to get your own insurance after this is law, too bad. If you want to change your insurance really too bad.

This is supposed to be about choice, or that’s what the Democrats keep telling us. I beg to differ. There is choice in the market place today. It might not be everyone’s perfect scenario, but most people when asked will tell you they are happy with their current coverage. Personally, I find comfort in the fact that I can go out and find something different if I want to as well. Obama tells us that adding a government option will force competition in the market. Fine, but there is a problem with this. The government gets to set the rules, as evidenced above. They will always give themselves the advantage with the rules they set, thus undercutting private companies, who will be unable to compete and thus be forced out of the market. It’s economics 101, and not that hard to understand. Any government option will ruin the private market. It might not happen right away, but it will happen.

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3 Comments

  1. Eric on 16.07.2009 at 15:00 (Reply)

    I seem to recall something about good intentions paving a road to somewhere.

    Lots of folks out there don’t care about economics. They just think, “If the gov’t can spend billions on this or that, then why can’t they make sure my kids get health care?”

    This is why. The gov’t is stupid. I don’t mean to sound disrespectful, and there are plenty of intelligent individuals in politics, but this kind of behavior and proposed reform is stupid, irresponsible, and arrogant. Stupid- because we know better than to think the gov’t could oversee healthcare. Irresponsible- because nobody really understands the mess this reform makes, and yet the president wants to push it through quickly, as if to prevent people from even trying to understand it. Arrogant- because we can look at other governments that provide healthcare and think that we’re to great or smart to repeat their disasters.

    Seeing them present something this dumb makes me think it’s not about healthcare at all. So what is it about?

    1. Sartho on 16.07.2009 at 18:05 (Reply)

      Politics? Power? Perceived “Fairness”? Popularity? Because it sure isn’t about truly doing what’s best for the people of the U S of A.

      My opinion is it’s about (on the “little people” level) people not realizing that they really are responsible for themselves – their choices and the consequences that come with them. It’s not a rich man’s fault that someone else decides to not go to college or learn a skill that pays just a little better than minimum wage. But they feel like it’s not fair that the rich man has more money regardless of how he got that money and wants a piece of his pie.

      It goes back to that post about the Pitt. Steelers super bowl trophies (still one of my favorites!) and how the Detroit Lions should get one because it wasn’t their fault they couldn’t win a single game. It’s the same kind of senseless thinking. It’s not my fault I’m a security guard making $10 an hour at 40 years old. It’s the 30 year old MIT grad’s fault cuz he’s taking all the money!

      As for the lawmakers level, I don’t understand yet how they can be such huge idiots. But a lot of them are.

  2. East of Eden on 16.07.2009 at 16:43 (Reply)

    Umm that would be Hell. Which is where I’ve felt I’ve landed since Jan 20th, 2009, Noon.

    Eric, be as disrespectful as you want. You will get no argument from me that the government is generally stupid. My husband works for the government. I see stupid on a daily basis. (The government not my husband, he’s brilliant!)

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