A Better Health Care System

Congress, that hallowed hall of officials duly elected by the citizens (and in some cases illegal aliens depending on which state you want to talk about), is supposed to represent the wishes of the people from whichever state they came from, has become an institution that represents itself. The House of Representatives and the Senate have become so engrossed in their own power that they seem to do what they want regardless of what the people of the nation want. They write and pass laws on a regular basis based on their own ideals; a lot of times only to increase their own wealth and power within the confines of the political arena.

As of the writing of this article, national healthcare is one of the biggest issues facing the nation, and the Congress. What was passed into law in 2010 was forced through without being read by any of the representatives being able to read it, being told they had to vote it through to find out what was in it. What was in it was a lot of mandates that have shown to be so unaffordable that insurance companies are dropping out of it faster than flies on Raid. The only people that have benefitted from the Affordable Care Act are those that are too poor to afford insurance but too rich to be on Medicaid; in other words, a small minority.

Now, with a Republican Congress that has promised to repeal and replace the ACA for eight years and a Republican in the White House, it seems that changing the government controlled healthcare system should be quite easy. Not so. It has come about that even within the Party there are disagreements as to just how to make a government controlled healthcare system work for everyone. All the while, the people of the nation are becoming increasingly anxious as to just what is going to happen with their healthcare.

For those that are buying individual, private policies, the premiums keep rising; for those on company policies, the premiums keep rising; for those on Medicaid, no worries and those on the ACA, well, they wonder if they will have health insurance. The American taxpayers, the citizens of this nation, are the ones that are worried. Congress, on the other hand, has no worries as they have the best health coverage in the nation totally paid for by the taxpayer.

With liberals and conservatives at each other’s throats arguing for and against the ACA and its failing, complex system, Representatives and Senators sit back and try to find some form of government controlled system that will reap the most money for them and still have people insured for health care. What I don’t understand is what the big deal is about this. I really think that, even though health care needed some restructuring before Mr. Obama decided to get government into the medical field, it wasn’t that bad. Premiums were affordable and the people could go where they wanted. Now, there are people that have no coverage because there are no insurance companies where they are that are willing to stay in the ‘exchanges’ set up by the ACA because they were losing too much money. After all, it is hard to make money when healthy, young people don’t buy into it and sick people are taking away from it. I, for one, would rather pay the ‘penalty’ for not having insurance that is about one quarter the cost of paying high premiums with high deductibles that I would never reach. In other words, I was paying for any health care I received out of pocket anyway.

One way to clear this problem up would be to force our elected officials to use whatever system they come up with just like everyone else. Either that, or get government out of the medical field altogether. Another way would be to regulate the big pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, doctors and insurance companies so that they don’t overcharge for medical services and medicines. Maybe if our elected officials would stop receiving big payoffs from the pharmaceutical companies it would help.

The United States of America is not a socialist country. This nation was not built on any form of socialistic ideology; therefore, it is the people’s responsibility to take care of themselves, not the government’s. Capitalism is what built this country with all its pros and cons. Self-reliance made this country great. Innovation cannot be controlled by government and a socialist government cannot be innovative.

It is time to rein in the abuse of power of a corrupt Congress. Term limits without the ‘retirement’ plan that pays them full salary for the rest of their lives, even after only one term. Time to take back our government and get rid of the corruption and abuse of power; OUR TIME IS NOW!