Thursday, August 10, 2017

Federal Government, Get out of Medicaid!

* I do not believe health care is a “right” in any sense of the word; it is a commodity; it has economic value and must be used with restraint if costs are to be abated; you turn down the thermostat when you leave home; you use the least expensive medical care for a “small” problem, not the emergency room.
* I have great health care through Medicare and a secondary policy I brought with me into retirement from my employer.  

The health care argument in congress is the stupidest most deceitful debate I have heard from that overpaid body in years. The democrats are malicious and Republicans are spineless.  It misses important points and the politicians are far too busy gauging the votes they will gain or lose from a vote on repeal Obamacare rather than looking at constitutional and responsible alternatives.  These people are incompetent or outright deceptive in the arguments they present or overlook.  I have only a limited understanding of Obamacare or the issues at the table but a few things are clear to me.  

* Medicaid is a boondoggle; it siphons medical community time from patients (like me) who have chosen employment and life choices that provide health benefits; it requires absolutely nothing from the recipient despite what the politicians say (I saw that first hand) and carries both previously existing conditions patients, patients who flagrantly abuse themselves knowing full well that they are irresponsible (smoking, obesity, drugs and alcohol); students until they are 26 (what ever happened to the age of majority - 21?) and females who simply refuse to stop having children.

* States that accepted “enhanced medicaid” did so at their own peril and now in order to continue to provide enhanced medicaid they will have to subsidize payments from state coffers if by God’s good grace, the feds choose to only fund basic medicaid. Bill Clinton provided Federal funding for additional police but the accepting jurisdictions had to promise to maintain that additional force after the two-year grant ran out.  Many cities, responsibly, refused the grant.  States that accepted enhanced Medicaid took the opposite path and now expect the Federal government to continue funding.

* I was in the workforce for 40 years and selected employers and work that provided me health benefits; I had a young family for many years and believed I was responsible for their well-being, not Obama or his predecessors.  Now, as a senior citizen I am more of a drain on the health system than I am a contributor, BUT the payments I made through the years were either actuarily based (which I doubt) or should have been.  Thus I will, as I always have, seek the least expensive treatments first but will not balk at treatments that cost more than I ever paid into the system.  That the medicare payments were probably not actuarily based is the government’s fault, not mine...and I had no choice but to pay in to medicare at the rates they prescribed. I was required to “buy” and now, government, I require you to deliver.  I just learned that the federal government subsidizes health care for elected officials.  I scrambled for my Dramamine.  These self-serving incompetent narcissists are paid a fortune, even if the individual serves only one term and they receive medical benefits better than I. How dare they rip the public for undeserved, unearned salary or health benefits.

The number bandied that will lose health benefits if the Republicans were to repeal Obamacare, is 22 million but these people did not have health care before Obamacare.  The government that giveth has every right to taketh away and has no business in health care to begin with. Importantly, the Republicans refuse to make that point.  At least, recently, in an uncommon move, Trump paraded people whom Obamacare had hurt.  That record needs to be played over and over again.

THE REPUBLICANS ARE to BLAME

The democrats rammed Obamacare through congress (forced a vote before Mark Brown, a conservative senator from Massachussetts was confirmed to the senate - which would have changed the vote) with no republicans at the negotiating table.  Now, the democrats are stonewalling virtually anything Trump wants to do and unfortunately Trump’s bluster has become muted.  The Republicans who voted for years to abolish Obamacare now do not vote for it because in power they are afraid of their constituents.  Rand Paul, Kentucky, has it right and in the Senate, he is the only one.  He voted the bill down on libertarian government principles.  Susan Collins, Maine, can’t think clearly because her brain still has not defrosted from last winter and Senator Hellar from Nevada has so many constituents (albeit union if they work in the casinos) who would have no health care if it were not for Obamacare. So, those two voted against repeal as well. The passage of Obamacare was included the insistence of Obama and his clones that it would pay for itself and save money in the end.  Obama got everything he wanted and has still secretly subsidized the failing plan rather than force the Democrats to the table.  It is imperative (and unlikely) that the Republicans take ads, write their constituents, appear on talk shows to make the case that by NOT supplying additional funding, they are not killing babies or forcing old people to eat dog food, they are allowing the program Obama and the Democrats built to implode. Trump says that is going to happen but it will only if the Republicans allow Obamacare to fail by its own design.  When (if) it does, the Dems and the RiNo’s will come to the table.  I fear they lack the courage to force this issue. I reiterate:  provide no more funding for Obamacare under any circumstances.

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