Let's Do Nothing

You know what? The hell with all the hand wringing, shouting, pushing and shoving over healthcare reform. Let’s just do nothing. Leave everything the way it is. Let the conservative fear mongers have their day. Let the insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies and all their high paid lobbyists do as they wish. Congress will knuckle under and probably pass some watered-down, worthless bill, regardless, and they will call it healthcare reform. Why bother?

I have insurance provided by my employer that covers me as long as I keep my job, but I can’t afford to add my wife. For her, we will have to try and keep a Blue Cross Blue Shield major medical policy with a $5,000 deductable and outrageous premiums and out of pockets. It is only good if she goes to the hospital. She can’t use it for check-ups or medicine. Last year her premiums increased three times. If there are any more increases, she may as well join the ranks of the uninsured and just hope and pray that she does not get sick like millions of other Americans.

If I should lose my job or change jobs, I’m “up the crick” anyway, because I now have a preexisting condition. I am a diabetic. Even if I could find coverage under another policy, it would be doubtful that I could afford the premiums. Without insurance, my medicine would become extremely expensive and doctor visits would be over $100. (No more $25 co-pays.) I’m sure the boys and girls from “The Party of NO” are right. True healthcare reform would just cost too much. We should save our money for defense spending and new weapons that are too expensive to use. We sure can’t afford a Public Healthcare Option, even if President Obama says he won’t sign the bill, if it cannot pay for itself. Everybody knows it would still cost taxpayers trillions of dollars and it would drive our private insurance companies out of business (horrors!)…just like government-run Medicare did. Remember Medicare? Besides, who wants government run healthcare with “death panels” that would pull the plug on Grandma, where everyone would be covered? There is just something wrong with that idea.

I think Americans should pay more for their prescription drugs than the rest of the world. Let our drug companies continue giving deep discounts to Canada, Mexico and Europe. And for sure, let’s enforce the laws that keep us from buying prescription drugs from those countries at a lower price. Somebody has to pay for all that research and development. It may as well be us taxpayers.

So what’s wrong with letting doctors invest in testing facilities? The more tests they order, the more money they make. Who cares if the tests make us healthier or not? If you are lucky enough to still be able to afford insurance, let insurance pay for it all. (Does anyone hear a ratchet sound regarding the cost of healthcare?) Medicine should be all about making as much money as you can. That is the American way! Remember, medicine is not about outcomes.

So, if most of us reach a point where we can no longer afford our insurance and we are finally cut off from the healthcare system as it is, life will get real simple and…cheap. No more premiums, no more co-pays, no more high deductibles or out of pockets, no more costly prescriptions. We will just grow old, get sick and…die. Those in Washington, who are now debating our healthcare reform, can just step back and keep what they have. You see, THEY are covered. The federal insurance, the fancy tests and expensive, lifesaving drugs and treatments will still be available…for THEM. We do not deserve healthcare! We are only tax-paying citizens. WE are expendable.

On that day, the insurance and pharmaceutical industries will finally be happy. They will at last get rid of all who are sick, have preexisting conditions and those who are poor. Finally, when most of us Americans die off or get too sick to work…oh, wait…

Never mind. Forget the part about doing nothing.

Food for THOUGHT…