The potential national health care plan in the U.S. is making all the headlines these days. With all the politics involved (and all the FUD being spread), it’s hard to know exactly what is actually being proposed.
Howstuffworks has a great podcast on this exact issue. They try to keep politics out of it and just describe what the proposed plan would look like. It’s a good 30 minutes spent to educated yourself. It’s not comprehensive, but it’s a great introduction for the lay person. Here’s the link if you are interested:
2009-09-22-sysk-health-care-reform-obama.mp3
For my part, I am not a fan of any kind of national health care system. I know many things in the current system are broken, but since when did the government do anything right? This will go from bad to worse. Social security is an absolute disaster. This is just another social security system waiting to happen. Then we’ll have to pay the mandatory government insurance, plus additional insurance because the government’s part doesn’t cover enough. No thanks.
Many things in this health care proposal scare me. One example is how the government will have to decide what treatments are best (so they can provide “appropriate” coverage). Even though this system keeps a private marketplace, I’m worried that it may be the first step towards something even more socialized. When this doesn’t work, people will rally for more oversight, more involvement, and more spending. It’s a step down the wrong path.
Our government needs to go the opposite direction. Companies need to “reboot” every few decades to stay fresh. Look at IBM in the 90’s. It went from a (failing) hardware company to a consulting/services company. It’s a whole new animal, and it’s now very successful again. Chrysler did the same in the 80’s. Companies go through a life cycle, just like we do. They go through birth (startup), teenage years (early successes), middle age (cash cows keep bringing in the money but bureaucracy creeps in), old age, and death (or rebirth to a new type of company). It’s a natural process that keeps our economy fresh and moving.
The sad thing is that our government can’t do the same thing without a revolution. And revolutions have serious consequences — we’re certainly not at that point yet. The government keeps growing; more people go on state money; taxes keep raising (not just the percentage, but the addition of various taxes too); programs start and have to be kept up. What happens when so many programs get put in place that over half of us work for the government? Who pays taxes then? Our politicians may publicize the cutting of certain spending or programs, but the government is not getting smaller. Overall, it is getting larger. Spending is more than ever.
Wouldn’t it be nice to “reboot” the government? All programs could be cancelled. All welfare. All military. All road projects. All spending. Then representatives could meet to put the bare essentials back in place: the treasury, the military, etc. We’d get a reboot with a small, efficient government.
Obviously, we can’t reboot the government in this way. It would cause mass chaos here in the U.S. and around the world. But I still keep hope that congress or the executive branch will start making serious cuts. I have hope, but I don’t see either party doing it soon. However well placed or poorly conceived my hopes may be, this health care system is a step towards larger government, more oversight, and less efficiency.
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