HEALTHCARE IS NOT A MATTER FOR PROFIT(THIS ONE'S FOR THE FISH)

National healthcare, and healthcare in any form, is not a matter for profit. Normally, I would not write about issues that could be labeled “political”. The issue of national healthcare, however being labeled “political”, is not a political issue. Therefore, I have no qualms with writing about it.

It seems to me that the buzzwords “open market”, and “free enterprise” surround this issue like cotton over feathers in a pillow. Sadly, these words and “national healthcare” should never be mentioned in the same sentence.

The rest of this post is my opinion, so if you don’t want to read my opinion, here is fair warning; leave without reading, because I am not afraid that I might offend some. Heck, some will always be offended, just for the cause of being offensive themselves.

Having said that, it is not my intention to offend anyone, but if enough people read this, I am sure someone will be.

Why is national healthcare not a matter for profit? For the same reasons that our military is not a matter for profit. National healthcare falls under the category of protecting the weak, the innocent, and the affluent. It falls under the category, therefore, of national defense, exactly because national healthcare is one device of the presidents oath to defend and protect the constitution, and the people of this great nation.

One device, I say, that must be used as a tool to offer healthcare to anyone who needs it, just as we offer armed protection to everyone in this nation, on all our borders, and in most of our international interests. Will taxes go up? Yes, they will. But isn’t it interesting that many in our nation have no qualms with ever-rising military costs, while constantly complaining if we should deem national healthcare a matter for the national budget.

Free healthcare is never free. If we as a nation offer free healthcare to all of our citizens, it will be paid for through taxes. Someone is going to foot the bill. Yet is it a bill we should be willing to pay? I say, yes, it is.

If national security is a concern, then national healthcare must be near the top of the list in specific concerns for this nation, and its government. We have seen our free enterprise system hand almost TOTAL control of the healthcare industry over to insurance companies, drug companies, and large medical institutions. All this we have done in hopes that every single American would be able to afford healthcare. What a glorious dream!!

Wake up!!!! The dream is over. It didn’t work, it isn’t going to work, and it’s time, right now, to do something about it. The insurance companies are not for the patients, they are for themselves, to earn profits at just about any cost. Even if that cost includes denying coverage for new procedures that might save someone’s life. In a life saving matter, why should an insurance company have ANY say in what is covered?

Life and death, and health, are not matters that should ever be decided by “how much will it cost?” It is a disgrace that our nation makes these life and death decisions based on what is inside of our wallets, or more aptly put, what is inside of the insurance company’s wallet. Again the question, why should any insurance company have any say in what type of care is provided?

Answer? Because we pay them to. Here is a radical question; how much less would healthcare cost if we outlawed health insurance altogether? My guess is, the costs would be cut at least in half. I have no numbers to support that opinion, and I won’t do the research to prove it. But if you take one look at every aspect of medicine in which insurance companies have their grubby little hands, surely you might see the same results. Insurance companies control billing practices, length of stay, what procedures are recommended, what procedures are actually carried out, what procedures are paid for, where you get your healthcare, who you see, what type of medication they can offer, and the list just goes on seemingly forever. What an asinine way to do healthcare. And we want to claim that our free market is the market the world should model?

My advice to the world would be, take one look at our healthcare system, and run away from it, as far and as fast as you can. It is a joke, it is a mess, and there are so many people who have absolutely no coverage whatsoever, that the government has lost count. Now, is that a healthcare system that sounds like it is working?

Sometimes, you just have to burn the trash. To pick through it, and salvage the very small pieces that are worth salvaging is a waste of time. Our national healthcare is one of those things that should be burned, and restarted, without insurance companies.

Well, how do we cover healthcare, without insurance? There is a very simple answer to that. I will give my opinion in the form of a question. If each citizen can depend on our nation to defend us, if we can pay taxes for guns, bombs, planes, ships, and nukes, can we depend also on paying taxes for healthcare? Can we hand over control of healthcare back to the doctors and nurses, in whose hands it belongs?

I say we can, and I say, it would cost businesses and individuals FAR less money to do it that way, than to do it the way we currently do it. Imagine our national defense in the hands of an insurance company, whose sole reason for being in business is not to protect us, but to make money for itself. When it came time to actually protect us, the insurance company would argue that this matter, or that matter, is not covered by the policy, and thus, we would have to protect ourselves. It is no small wonder why we don’t hire out our national defense to an insurance company, or open it up to fee market bidding.

National healthcare must be no different than national security, no matter what the initial cost. To leave matters of health, life, and death in the hands of companies whose sole interest in the matter is its level of profit is criminal, thievery, and our government is allowing it, nay, our government is encouraging it to continue.

Already, it is nearly impossible to change the status quo, exactly because insurance companies make so much profit that they can afford lobbyists who sole purpose is to sway our representatives into legislating for the large insurance companies. This is also criminal, it is against the constitution of the United States of America, to give any group, based on ethnicity, affluency, or any other criteria, any advantage in legislation. Legislation, as a LAW, cannot be bought. If it is bought, it is a criminal act against our nation, in short, it is treason.

Strong words, I know, yet are they untrue? If I go to Washington DC, and sit outside my senator or congressman’s office, how often will I see an insurance lobbyist meet with him? This is the way it works in our country, and we should be blind to it no longer. If you want national healthcare, if you don’t want to have to worry anymore how you are going to pay for healthcare, or insurance, or have peace of mind even through a difficult illness, then raise your voice, let it be heard, and let it be loud.