Pacific Health Center | Nutritional Health Balancing Program | Portland, Sisters, OR

by Monte Kline, Clinical Nutritionist

I’ve never been prouder of my fellow Americans than in watching the tens of thousands that are turning out at town hall meetings confronting their senators and congressmen with the facts about ObamaCare.  Thanks to this issue the “silent majority” is no longer silent . . . or, as one woman said to Senator Arlen Spector:

You have awakened a sleeping giant.

When you distill it all down, several things become clear:

1. ObamaCare will result in a “single-payer” government-run health care system. The oft-repeated line that you can keep your existing insurance is disingenuous at best and a bold-faced lie at worst.  Does anyone really believe that many of the 1300 private insurance companies would survive when competing against a taxpayer-subsidized government program costing 30% less?  Employers would jump at the chance to reduce their health insurance costs by transferring to the government program.  Unlike private insurance companies, government unfortunately doesn’t have to make a profit.  It wouldn’t happen immediately, but within three to five years the bulk of the private health insurance companies would be out of business.  Though he now denies it, Obama is on tape during the campaign saying he favors a single-payer (i. e. the government) system.  This is how he plans to get there.

2. The resulting government health care will have rationing and waiting lines. We absolutely know that because that’s the way it is in every country that has socialized medicine.   You’ve heard the examples many times already from Canada and the U.K.  Make something “free” and you get more usage of it.  Add 50 million people consumers to the health care system with the same number of doctors and hospitals, and you have to have rationing and waiting lines.

3. Can the government run anything well? If you want to know what ObamaCare would look like, examine the government-run health care we already have — the VA (Veteran’s Administration).  I have dealt with clients for over 25 years who received conventional health care from the VA — suffice to say, horror stories abound.  Is there anything that the government really runs well?  The bankrupt Post Office?  The long waiting lines at the DMV?  Your local Planning Department?  Because of lack of competition and no need to make a profit, government-run anything tends to be a disaster.

4. 45 million uninsured — lying with statistics 101. Of the supposed 45 million uninsured, according to the US Census Bureau:

• 17 million make over $50,000/year and could afford health insurance
• 18 million are age 18 – 34 and just don’t feel the need to spend the money on health insurance
• 14 million are eligible for existing government health insurance programs like Medicaid and SCHIP.
• 12 million are illegal aliens that shouldn’t have free government health care anyway
• ONLY 8 MILLION ARE REALLY UNINSURED.  Many of these have chosen a life of irresponsibility and will not be forced into the health care system no matter what.

5. SOLUTIONS — A lot is wrong with health care in America, but it cannot be fixed with a government takeover of the system:

• TORT REFORM – I know from personal and client experience that medical malpractice goes on and that people must have legal recourse for damages.  Actual damages are one thing; punitive damages are another.  A $250,000 cap on punitive damages would greatly lower exhorbitant malpractice insurance rates, which comprise a significant part of health care costs.  It would also lower the income of multi-millionaire, sleaze bag, ambulance-chasing lawyers, like John Edwards.  Unfortunately, half of the Congress are lawyers.  Since trial lawyers comprise one of the largest funding sources for the Democrat party, ObamaCare makes no mention of tort reform.

• EXPAND HEALTH SAVINGS ACCOUNTS — The main reason health care is expensive is because people are not spending their own money.  They neither know nor care what the services received cost.  Imagine what that kind of system would do to buying groceries, cars, or any other item?  In an HSA part of your monthly payment goes to a catastrophic insurance policy to cover major events and part goes to your own HSA account where you decide what to spend.  The money you don’t spend is yours to keep, so you actually shop for the best deal — competition, lower prices, etc.  Unfortunately, only a small percentage of the population has HSA’s, mainly due to governmental interference.  They could be as common as IRAs.  This also solves the “portability” question:  When you move or change jobs, your HSA goes with you because it’s yours.

• DECREASE THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT IN HEALTH CARE – ObamaCare, however you cut it, intends to increase the role of government in health care — paying for it, rationing it, deciding what treatments you get, etc.  The problem is not that government is not involved enough, but that it is already too involved in health care! Thanks to the government, all 1300 health insurance companies cannot sell policies in all 50 states — lack of competition = higher prices.  Why is it that car insurance companies like GEICO, State Farm, Allstate, Farmer’s, etc. sell in all 50 states, but health insurance companies can’t do the same thing and compete for business, instead of having essentially government created monopolies?

The current protests have been very revealing of two basic political philosophies in America.  One philosophy believes in the government running things.  Probably 90% of the Democrat Party is committed to this view, along with the “moderates” in the Republican Party.  Adherents basically want to remake American into a Western European style social democracy.

The other philosophy is summarized by Ronald Reagan’s famous statement:

Government isn’t the solution to the problem; it is the problem.

Conservative Republicans, Libertarians, and independent conservatives hold to this view.  The current town halls demonstrate the clash of these two philosophies.