What's wrong
with universal health care?

So far as health care is concerned, not much is wrong with the universal health care we now have. Other than being pretty unfair. Every hospital has an emergency room. If you are sick, you can go there to be treated. They would like you to pay. If you cannot, the law says they must treat you anyway. Is that fair?

Supposing you were hungry and ordered a meal in a restaurant. They would like you to pay, but if you could not, should they be required to feed you anyway? Hey... you'll die if you don't eat!

What's wrong with the universal health care being proposed by our government? One word: Government.

Recently I've seen TV commercials for something called "Angie's List". These commercials tell of a plumber who performed far above and beyond what he was paid to do. He is highly recommended. Then there is the painting contractor whose employee, in a pique, stomps off the job tracking paint across the customer's carpet. Avoid this outfit.

We all know about the Better Business Bureau, a private, franchised outfit that catalogs complaints against business establishments in their locality. If you want to hire a contractor, or buy a car from a used car lot, call the BBB. They'll tell you of complaints they have received from earlier customers.

Past performance counts. It is an indicator of how an outfit may perform in the future.

So, we are now offered a health care program by an outfit called the Federal Government. Let's check their past performance.

Benjamin Franklin conceived a postal service as a reliable way for us to exchange letters. To be run by the U.S. Government. Good idea... better than leaving letters at the local tavern for your friends to pick up.

I can't know what Franklin proposed the service would cost. I imagine he believed the service could charge each patron a small fee per letter, which would cover all costs. But each succeeding Congress heaped on more free services for the USPS to perform, so the fee had to be raised. The original objective - delivering letters - had to be somewhat curtailed.

Then Congress decided that a Postmaster, unlike any other business manager, could not fire an employee without hearings, etc., so the easy way was to just keep loafers on the payroll. The USPS became bloated and inefficient.

Throughout my youth, the cost to deliver a letter was 3¢. At the moment it is 47¢. That's a rise of 1,567%, and the USPS is still losing money. $7 Billion this year. Another $7 Billion projected for next year. With our current population, a billion dollars amounts to about $3.25 for every man, woman and child. For a family of four, the $7B Post Office deficit amounts to about $90. a year. That would have mailed 3,000 letters when I was a kid.

Will someone please call Angie's list?

When I was 13 and took my first job away from the family farm, the government informed me that I was now the proud owner of a retirement insurance policy, and that I would pay a premium, a percent of every paycheck I ever earned, throughout my working lifetime. Also, every employer I ever worked for would match that premium. Never mind details like total premiums or eventual benefits - they would work that out later.

Each succeeding Congress became more benevolent. They extended benefits to people who never paid a premium. They added hospital bills and doctor bills, and prescription drugs. They never considered that improved health care would help people live longer.

They needed money for other things. so instead of investing our premiums as private insurance companies do, they spent the money. Now they tell us the system is going broke and they may not be able to pay the promised benefits.

Will someone please call the Better Business Bureau?

Similar stories can be told about Amtrak. Veteran's hospitals. Land management. You name it.

We can debate HR3200 all day. We can read, dissect and quote the Senate bill - if and when it is ever written. But none of that matters. Past performance indicates that any health care program initiated and run by the United States Government is going to swell to unimagined costs, and never, ever provide the benefits it promises.

Does our health care system need reform? Indeed it does. We must eliminate restrictions on buying health insurance across state lines. As Dr. Charles Krauthammer suggested, we must "end malpractice lawsuits." (Quit making attorneys like John Edwards rich, and end costly defensive medicine.) "We must end employer provided health care." (This practice, incidentally, arose when government mandated wage and price controls forbade employers from giving raises to attract and hold valued employees. In lieu of raises, they gave them free health insurance.) "Tax employer-provided health-care benefits and return the money to the employee with a government check to buy his own medical insurance, just as he buys his own car or home insurance."

Let's tackle these problems one at a time. Let's debate them. Let's have knowledgeable people on all sides contribute their ideas. Let's do it right.

What can you do? Call Congress. Write Congress. Then call them again and write them again. Let's keep their computers and their telephones and their mail boxes overloaded until they understand what we insist they do.