• Health care retort Health care retort Mr. Zwiebel writes a very interesting letter (“Health care rights”, May 26) and there are points upon which we agree. However, the author claims no one is asking for free “health care” and
• Health care retort
Health care retort
Mr. Zwiebel writes a very interesting letter (“Health care rights”, May 26) and there are points upon which we agree. However, the author claims no one is asking for free “health care” and he’s willing to raise his own taxes to pay for it, but unfortunately there is a point of diminishing returns for raising taxes, and we are almost there already in this country. To pay for the massive bureaucracy and costs of providing the “best” health care available to all equally would create a tax burden on individuals and business so onerous both would self destruct. Middle income Americans don’t have enough extra income for them to pay higher taxes, the top 10 percent of our income earners are already paying over 70 percent of our total federal and state taxes collected, and it’s those taxes that will have to be the mechanism of paying for Obamacare because our current “government” can’t print any more worthless money than it already is.
Of course, the more liberal among us just say “tax those horrible corporations and the rich” more, they can pay for all our “free stuff”. Sorry, it’s a free country and placing that burden on the corporations and the rich, who haven’t already left, will assure they will all be gone in a millisecond. There goes your job and everything else in your life you will lose, or can’t pay for, while you and your neighbors are on welfare. Aren’t there already too many of our friends and neighbors experiencing that unfortunate reality because of the horrible state of our negative economy?
We do agree health care costs are climbing out of reach for too many of us and something needs to be done. So what are our realistic choices for a solution? Of course the rich could pay a little more and not be forced to find greener pastures, but that would not be nearly enough. We could change the methods of treatment to a more preventive approach, and provide people incentives for encouraging behavior that motivates us to do the things necessary to maintain good health like maintaining a healthy weight, eating right, sleeping right, and not abusing our bodies in any way, i.e. alcohol, cigarettes, drugs etc. But, other than having to “prove” you do your part in taking care of your own health or you don’t get the “free stuff”, what incentive can you think of that would accomplish that?
We could get rid of the expensive overused “keep everyone alive for an extra few days by attaching them to the multi-million dollar machines” system, or quit providing organ transplants to prisoners on death row and other ridiculous costs. But, who decides who we unplug from the “keeping me alive machine” first? I don’t think any of us are ready for that.
But alas, the reality is obvious. There is no solution that can provide everything everybody demands, or even needs. Someone will have to pay, and to me the ones who have the greatest responsibility to pay are the ones receiving the “free” stuff. If I have no money the only things left I have of commercial value are my time, good will, and my life. I hesitate to give my life, but perhaps I could be strongly encouraged to pay “society” back for the “free stuff” I took from it by giving my time for “social service” in hospitals, day care centers, retirement homes, or cleaning up our neighborhoods, or any one of the myriad of other charity endeavors that need volunteers. Of course, paying society back through service would have to be “mandated” because there are way to many of us today who are more than comfortable taking from others without conscience. Perhaps that’s why we’re now hearing the new, and much too accurate, term “Entitlement Nation” when referring to our wonderful country. And of course, the biggest problem for this approach is it’s creation of yet another large “government” run department to oversee it all. That in itself is a direct path to inefficiency and waste.
After several Presidents, billions of dollars spent, and countless debates in the Senate, Congress, and at state levels, there is no viable “free” health care for all solution that’s been embraced as realistic by a majority of Americans. We are in trouble.
One thing we do know for sure is that you have no “right” to free health care Mr. Zwiebal because nothing is “free” and health care is not a “transaction”, unless you pay! But someone has to pay. Wouldn’t you agree that my paying for your health care is definitely a transaction, and it’s my entitled “right” to be protected from the confiscation of my hard earned money to pay for any transaction that gives you or anyone else “free stuff” on my dime?
America is indeed a compassionate nation Mr. Zwiebel. We give more to charity here, and worldwide, than any other nation on earth by far. But America is not yet stupid enough to fall for “free” meaning nobody pays. That’s a concept nurtured by the more liberal and socialistic among us as an excuse for them not to be held accountable for their own failure to produce.
Gordon Oswald, Kapa‘a
