Don't Say I Didn't Warn You.

I work as an independent consultant. That means I supply my own health insurance. I pay over $500 per month just to insure myself. And I am not a wealthy man. If anyone should be screaming from the mountain top for the government to do something about health care costs, it should be me. I'm not. Why? Because I know the alternative.

Government managed health care doesn't work. You constantly read stories about people who stay away from doctors because they can't afford it. The fact of the matter is, no one is turned away from an emergency room when they need critical care. Do they get to go to the Mayo Clinic? No, but they get the basic care they need. Which is about all a person with no means to pay for something should expect, no? Does the person on food stamps eat at Outback? No, but they eat, don't they?

I'm not saying the health care system couldn't stand a bit of a make over. I'm just saying that a radical plan, based on government subsidization, is not the answer.

In a single pay system, where the single payer is the government (and that reality rests not far down that slippery slope we stand atop now), everyone will run to the doctor for everything. Why not, it's free, right? Having to pay for something is the built in control in a financial system that keeps it from collapsing. Medical facilities will be overwhelmed, causing health care costs to explode, not decline. And since the government is paying for everything, who absorbs that cost? Substitute the word "taxpayer" for "government", and you will see where this is leading. Then, when the government has raised taxes as high as they can, and printed all of the money they can without the entire financial system collapsing, the quality of care will disintegrate.

So when you are paying 60 percent or more of your income in taxes and are forced to sit in the same dirty, broken down waiting room with someone who has never worked a day in their life, waiting the same stupifyingly long time for the same negligible level of "care", remember where you read it first.

And all that Xanax, Prosac, Wellbutrin, etc. etc., you take to keep yourself from jumping out the window? If you can afford to buy it on the black market, you may be OK. If not, forget about it, it won't be available. And when you do jump out that window, if you're lucky enough to survive, you better hope the one ambulance your town can afford isn't in the shop.

The only people that will continue to enjoy top flight health care are the very wealthy. Sound familiar?

One positive note- with the dissappearance of Viagra, Cialis, etc. for all but the wealthy few- old women throughout the country will once again be safe from their husbands.

Don't worry, once the government inevitably takes over health care completely, you can count on the same level of competent service you now recieve from stellar government operations like the IRS and FEMA, and the same level of financial soundness as Social Security.