Leave it to Democrats to play on emotion. In part, this is the latest missive I got from Organizing Against America.
My name is Suzanne. I’m a legal secretary and an OFA volunteer here in New Mexico, and this is a bittersweet holiday season for me.
While I have some good news to share with my family and friends, there’s one bad piece of news I need to share at the same time: Due to my skyrocketing health care costs, I’ve been forced to fall behind on my bills, and now my house is under notice of foreclosure.
So this year, when I sit down to write my family and friends, I’ll also be sending a holiday card to my senators, letting them know that my wish this holiday season is health reform.
It goes on from there. I’d be interested to know just why her health care costs are skyrocketing but she doesn’t go into that.
Then my next curiosity: if she’s not working, wouldn’t she be eligible for the government assistance we already have now? If she is working, how does Suzanne have time to be a volunteer? Obviously her medical condition isn’t so terrible that she can’t function at work or as a volunteer.
I know as well as anyone that bad things happen to good people. The stories that won’t be written if Obamacare passes would be those of the people laid off because the company can’t afford the extra expenses of health insurance, or those who die waiting on care because it’s rationed, only parceled out to those who are most economically viable to keep around. (If you don’t believe me, look to Canada and Great Britain for examples.)
While our health care system is far from perfect, the solution proffered by Suzanne and company aren’t going to improve it. Some may be critical of the profit motive in health care, but part of the reason our system has advanced as far as it has is that people are trying to make it better and profit from their improvements. On the other hand, where competition does not exist the result tends to be stagnation.
Any improvement to Suzanne’s financial condition because her health care is “free” will surely be swallowed up in the lack of progress in addressing her ailments that the acute shortages of research and personnel will surely bring once the profit motive is removed. That’s the price we’ll all pay if government-run single-payer health care comes to pass.
