More on Health Care Reform

I heard this quote this morning from a speech that former President Bill Clinton made, and it frightened the heck out of me:

"It is politically imperative for the Democrats to pass a health care bill this year."

If you don't find that chilling, the spin doctors in DC have succeeded in turning you into a zombie.

Let's "unpack" the quote, as my pastor would say. The word "political" should be to most thinking Americans as the word "religious" is to most Christians. I'm not "religious;" I have faith. And I'm not political, nor do I ever want to be.

To be political is to do things for the sake of furthering one's agenda, whether they're the right thing to do or not. I once had several board members who were political, and they wanted me to do something that was good for them personally, but bad for the company. They had phone conversations between board meetings to coordinate their strategy and votes, and then working in concert, they'd hijack board meeting agendas to put forth their own. That is being political.

Of course, an imperative is something that one must do. So something that's politically imperative is something that must be done for political gain, to further one's agenda.

Or in this case, one party's agenda.

Why did Mr. Clinton say "this year?" Simple: mid-terms elections are next year. From that fact, we can divine the political agenda that he believes must be furthered: keep the party's majority in Congress, along with the White House. In other words, maintain one-party control over the United States of America.

Now, to some, that's not a problem at all. They hate Republicans, and would love to have a Karl Rove-ian permanent majority in Washington. But single-party control, no matter the party, has seldom been good for America.

However, regardless the side you're on, the spooky part of Mr. Clinton's quote is the notion that he considers the best path to maintaining single-party control of America the expenditure of trillions of taxpayer dollars - on top of an already record deficit that threatens to kill this country, forget about the health of its citizens - on a bill nobody's read, and that the CBO has announced will increase, not reduce, health care costs.

In other words, the former President believes that Congress should use taxpayer money to further the Democrats' control in Washington. He might as well advocate directly raiding the federal budget and dumping the money into Dems' campaign coffers. I'm just bloody glad he hasn't thought of it. Yet.

That is the mindset we must replace in Washington.

Am I against health care reform? No. The current system is far from perfect. Too many people don't have access. Costs are out of control. Health care costs are the single fastest-rising component of discretionary spending costs, and that hurts us economically. I'm sick of having to shop my company's health care plan out every other year because our new provider, who low-balled us to get our business, raised premiums by double-digit percentages for years two and three.

So start with tort reform. Stop the insane lawsuits that force docs to practice defensive medicine. But the lawyers' lobby owns Washington - heck, our President is himself a lawyer - so tort reform will never happen.

Totally revamp and streamline the process for approving new meds, and allow more competition among big pharma, so my Mom doesn't have to buy her inhaler from Chile.

Regulate the insurance biz at the national level, instead of the states, and even though I'm a free-market guy, bust their control over hospitals and doctors.

And take Medicare and Medicaid away from Congress so they can no longer dip their fingers in the cookie jar.

What don't I like about the proposed plan? Admittedly, I haven't read it. But a friend read the first 500 pages (putting him about 499 pages ahead of Arlen Specter), and listed some highlights. And I was not enamored.

But my biggest problem is that I don't trust Washington to run anything. Let me give you a little example of why.

I'm on a monthly billing plan with the dry cleaner I patronize. It's very convenient: I drop off, I pick up, I'm in and out, and I get a monthly bill which I pay electronically. No pausing to swipe my debit card when I pick up my duds.

Last week, I got a letter telling me that due to some new corporate privacy regulations intended to prevent identity theft (they're affiliated with Procter & Gamble, a big corporation), they're going to have to temporarily suspend monthly billing while they spend a bunch of money to revamp their record-keeping and billing software.

In the interim, I can pay when I pick up - or, I can fill out this handy form, including my credit card number, and they'll automatically charge me when I pick up my cleaning.

Now, they've never had my card number before. Just my name and address, so they could send me the bill. Since I paid using Quicken's billpay service, they would have had my bank account number, but nothing else.

If I fill out this form, they'll have my name, my address, my credit card number, the security code and the expiration date. Everything they need to steal my identity as that cardholder.

And this safeguards my privacy how, exactly?

The next morning, when I dropped off my clothes, I talked to the proprietor about it. She wasn't happy. And when I asked, "This is due to a new government regulation, right?" she responded in the affirmative.

And that, dear friends, is why I don't want to entrust government with my health care. If they cannot efficiently handle my dirty clothes, I'm not letting them anywhere near my spleen.

One final thought: I am sick and tired of hearing how "God wants health care reform." That's no different than Fred Phelps invoking His name to spew forth his bile. Health care is not a God-given human right, or people in the Old Testament would not have gotten sick. There've always been, sad to say, poor people who couldn't afford health care. Seeking access for them is a noble cause, as is seeking access to food for all, and we humans should put our time and money into helping provide for both, through good charitable works.

But neither is a God-given right, like the right to life or liberty (we were created alive and free; we were also created hungry). So let's leave God out of this until He tells us otherwise.