As I huffed, puffed, and struggled through a short run at what should be a comfortable pace in cool weather this morning, I had a little bit of an epiphany:
We don’t have a health care problem. We have a health problem.
We Don’t Need No Stinking Insurance!
Becky has the right idea…we need less insurance, not more.
But coverage of mundane and everyday medical care makes as much sense as having food insurance. We would go to the grocery store and show the checker our food insurance card, and the public or private carrier would take care of the tab.
I think that addresses the heart of the problem.
You don’t use your auto insurance to pay for a new battery, car washes, or breaks. These are maintenance issues–just part of owning a car. Auto insurance covers accidents–things you know are possible but hope will never happen to you.
Getting colds and minor injuries are just part of living. Health insurance should cover big things that you know are possible but hope will never happen to you–cancer, heart attacks, etc.
And just like driving sober and at a reasonable speed can reduce your chances of having an accident, making healthy lifestyle choices can greatly reduce your chances of having an unexpected illness.
We don’t subsidize auto insurance for drunks with a bunch of speeding tickets, so why should we subsidize medical insurance for smokers or people (like me) who choose to participate in injury prone sports?
IMO, Hillary needs to be more concerned with her own health (getting checked for STDs regularly?), and worry less about mine and yours.
Two More Things I Love About This Country
1. We still produce men as tough as Randy Couture, the UFC Heavyweight Champion
Couture, 44, who defeated contender Gabriel Gonzaga by technical knockout in the third round, broke an ulna bone in his left forearm during the third round, said his assistant Valerie Haney.
“It happened on [Gonzaga’s] high leg kick at Randy’s head,” Haney said. “Randy blocked the kick with his left arm.”
2. We don’t have to pay for health care for people who choose to smoke cigarettes, eat gravy as a side dish for every meal, or willingly put themselves in danger of being kicked in the head by cavemen like Gonzaga, who by the way was suffering from a shattered nose for the majority of the fight.
The Brazilians are still breeding some pretty tough dudes themselves.
I’m Looking for Some Yaz…You Holding?
I meant to write about this a couple of weeks ago the first time I saw the commercial for Yaz birth control pills.
“Yaz” doesn’t sound like a reputable birth control product to me. It sounds like the street name for some highly addictive substance made from processing kerosene, roach killer, and cotton candy.
These pharmacutical ads are getting more and more ridiculous every day. The one for Yaz has a crew of good looking women at a club talking about the side effects of birth control pills. While this is probably more common than I am aware, there’s no way they could hold this conversation for more than 45 seconds without some guy overhearing and wanting in on the discussion. More than likely, he just got out of the Viva Viagra commercial and is all revved up.
Seen that one? A bunch of guys sitting around singing “Viva Viagra”. It looks to me like they are holed up in some clandestine barn, where they’ve been crushing Viagra pills, cooking it up in a spoon, and shooting it. They pass the time waiting for it to hit them by singing a parody of an Elvis song. As soon as they are “feeling it”, they walk out of the barn high-fiving each other and get into their own separate vehicles. They’ll all end up in the same part of town ten minutes later looking for hookers, or irritating the young professional women in the Yaz commercial.
But I digress. Luckily, the costs to produce these low-grade SNL skits is passed along to consumers who are not afforded the ability to buy meta-recreational pharmacuticals over the counter. Getting laid these days may require a trip to the doctor and a prescription.
Bueller? Bueller?
FladaBlog has an excellent post on public school socialism:
Let’s consider an island with one family with children and one childless couple. Does the family have a right to force the autonomous couple to contribute to the education of their children? Most rational people will agree that they do not have such a right. Additionally, the childless couple does not have the right to force the other family to let the couple dictate how the family’s children should be educated. Does adding another family with children change the underlying principle of rights? Again, most rational people will agree that it does not.
So the question is: at what number of families does it become moral to force the childless couples to pay for the education of the families’ children? At what number does society gain the right to force families to start allowing the society to educate their children? Is 100 the magic number? 1000? 1,000,000?
Anyone? Anyone?
Read it again, substituting “education” with “health care”.
Again, this time with “retirement”.
Again, this time with “cable television”.
Again, this time with “reduced rates for energy” (corporate welfare).
Again, this time with “watermelon”, or “hair brushes” or “tire guages” or “jock straps”.
Of course, we all have the right, and I believe responsibility, to choose to contribute at any time. The question is, at what point do others have the right to force us to contribute?
So Just What is Government Health Care?
Mitt Romney isn’t in favor of government health care. He doesn’t want the government to pay for people’s health care. He wants you to choose your own private insurance plan (from a select few approved by the government), and the government can then subsidize it.
You see the difference? Through subsidies, he will be able to prevent any use of federal funds (taxpayer money) to pay for the health care of individual citizens. Because, you see, subsidies don’t come from tax payer money. They come from, uh, from uh…
Wait. I’m confused. Just what is a subsidy then?
This Says it All
I had a pretty lively discussion yesterday with some locals about nationalized health care. Now I don’t have any illusions about my abilities to explain rational ideas to irrational people, but it’s fun to stir that pot every now and then.
Today I saw this first-hand account of nationalized health care that I believe makes the argument better than anything I could ever say.
My closest encounter with nationalized health care was in Wales where my friend Halfacre got his chin busted open. I’ve seen enough cuts to know that this one would take anywhere from 10-12 stitches. He got four stitches and an ugly scar as a souvenir.
But it was “free”, so I’m sure he didn’t mind, right?
Overheard at the Hospital
I just returned to the hospital from running a couple of errands, and I came in through the cafeteria entrance, which has a nice outdoor dining area. There was a group of people unpacking their cooler (white bread, baloney, mayonnaise, and Lay’s potato chips) and I overhead the following statement:
“He’s got four warrants out, owes $14,000 in back child support, and he ain’t even lookin’ for a job.”
That’s funny.
Have you ever noticed that most of the people at the hospital look really unhealthy? I don’t mean the people that are in the hospital, I mean the people visiting. There are tons of overweight people (haha), and most of them are standing outside smoking. I’m not talking about heavy people–I could lose a few pounds myself. I’m talking about really obese people puffing away. It makes you wonder if the people they are there to visit are there mostly because they share a similar lifestyle.
Worse than the friends and family doing this outside are the nurses.
Is this what our money would go to support with nationalized health care? It’s no more fair for them to chip in and pay for my knee surgery because I chose to play a collision sport with a bunch of 20 year old kids than it is for me to chip in to pay for their health problems due to their lifestyle.
Happy Cost of Government Day!
Doug Mataconis points us to the report by Americans for Tax Reform that declares today the day of economic liberty in the United States. That’s right–beginning today, and every day for the rest of this year, every dollar you make actually belongs to you! This is very exciting. It’s a Festivus miracle!!!
It now only takes a little over half a year’s worth of work to pay your share of the bountiful gifts of government. Here are just a few examples of the wonderful things you have earned from your toils this year alone:
Failing education for all the kids in your neighborhood, whether you have any or not
A nation building project, err “war” that you probably don’t support
Housing for homeless alcoholics (offer good for Seattle residents only)
A fat pension for your former sheriff (Knox County residents only)
Substandard healthcare for wounded servicemen
A bankrupt government pension retirement fund–a.k.a. socialist security
Countless government subsidies for private industries–a.k.a. corporate welfare
Good job! I think you deserve a raise!!!
Mataconis:
The idea that Americans should have to work more than half the year to pay for the state should be offensive to anyone. Instead we all just seem to blindly accept it.
Who is Really Behind Smoking Bans?
I’ve always been very opposed to the government dictating when and where smoking is allowed to private businesses, but something happened this week that make me suspect that private industry may actually be behind smoking bans. So let’s consider this–who has the most to gain by banning smoking in the workplace? Continue reading “Who is Really Behind Smoking Bans?”
