A Disgruntled Vet on GOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE

A Disgruntled Vet on GOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE

Bill Ernest, Jr.

13 June 2009

As this Disgruntled Veteran can tell you, Government Health Care is only a good idea if you are poor and desperate (which, as a Freelance Writer & Comic, I am). Like so many other veterans, the Department of Veteran Affairs is my Health Care Provider. The doctors and nurses are top-notch and I am grateful for the care I get… when I finally get it. As an example, a couple of weeks ago I was sitting in the waiting room at the VA, waiting for my appointment and reading a 1999 Newsweek about the Y2K bug, when a Vet from an earlier war than mine returned to his seat next to his wife. She asked if he had gotten an appointment, to which he replied:

“September.”

“But you could be dead by then!” She told him.

“I think that may be the idea.” He told her… and was only half joking.

This is what we veterans have just come to expect from the VA. This is GOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE… at its finest. At its worse, the V.A. has lost our Social Security Numbers[1], used us as Guinea Pigs[2], and exposed us to the AIDS virus with a colonoscopy scope[3]! It gives a whole new meaning to the old lament “getting screwed by the VA!” This is what the rest of America will have to look forward to if the nonsensical single-payer plan, that this runaway circus-train of an administration, is trying to railroad through congress, passes both houses and lands on the desk of His Behindness.

Don’t get me wrong. I think the time has come for an alternative health care plan. Not that “health-insurance is a right,” as so many on the Left are apt to claim, but what it is IS “a gift” that the most prosperous and generous nation in the history of the planet can give its people. Currently the elderly and wards of the state (this includes everyone on welfare or disability) have health insurance (Medicare, Medicaid, state assistance, etc.) but the working poor to middle-class and self employed unfairly suffer without coverage. Waitresses, clerks, bartenders, hairdressers, truckers, cooks, cashiers, customer service reps, cab drivers, construction workers, writers, comics, and a thousand other thankless jobs that make this country a better place to live and all our lives just that much easier are among those with no hope of affordable health care. This is crazy. Working Americans going without proper tests and checkups while the shiftless and lazy are fully covered for every cough and cold! It is to our national shame that one single American dies of a disease that is treatable / curable if caught early.

While a single payer government-run health management system like Canada, Britain, and Cuba is, for sure, not the answer, the offered Republican plan[4] is worse than nothing at all (it is intellectually insulting). They call it “budget neutral.” It is budget neutral because it does nothing for a single individual. It is offered up to once again beat those old horses of malpractice litigation limitations and Medicare / Medicaid reform (while good ideas, are like “apples and Oldsmobiles” to the real issue at hand). It does nothing for that waiter with a bad back. It does nothing for that cabbie with high blood pressure. We need a real alternative. We need a real solution.

I would propose that for a 10.5% thru 17.5% garnishment of an individual’s earned wages before taxes, the government will provide these otherwise uninsured working Americans with “free” (no co-pay) Government Health Care and Prescriptions. This will still allow for healthy competition from private companies to beat the government’s health insurance price and allow those with prior existing medical conditions or special needs dependents to receive coverage at a reasonable cost. It would also prevent an undue and unfair government mandate for all employers to provide insurance which would bankrupt most small businesses and family owned restaurants. Here are a few details of my alternative:

-- The percentage of the GOVERNMENT wage garnishment will be based on general overall health first and foremost then; dependants, pre-existing conditions, long term care and prescriptions, age, etc., but will NEVER be based on gender, race or genetic pre-disposition. Health Care Garnishments will be 100% tax deductable. Private coverage payments would not be (this disparity would lead to even lower prices from private insurers as they try to beat the government’s tax break). This percentage will never exceed 17.5% (not including dental/vision).

-- Hospitals that accept $0.01 or greater in government money must accept GOVERNMENT-CARE. Hospitals that do not accept any government money for any reason are not required to participate.

-- Emergency rooms (public and private) will never deny anyone treatment for any reason and will hold the Federal Government (Homeland Security Budget) responsible for indigent citizens of other countries receiving treatment in their facility. The new Citizen’s Insurance money will never be tapped to fund illegal immigrants’ health care. This, too, will lead to lower health care costs by relieving state, county, and private hospitals of the financial burden related to the care of foreign nationals unlawfully living within the United States.

-- All U.S. Citizens must carry either private or government health insurance. There is no logical reason not to have one or the other. If you are happy with your current health insurance then keep it. This plan imposes no new taxes on those individuals not participating.

-- Your coverage may never be denied as long as you have held a job (and are a U.S. citizen)… there are already programs for everyone else.

-- Offer non-cosmetic dental for 1.5% extra, vision .5% extra.

-- Persons using the public health insurance should be unable to sue for malpractice except in cases of criminal neglect, criminal incompetence, or criminal intent. (Vets and members of the military currently receive their health care under this condition)

-- For the good of society, Mental Health should be covered at no extra cost, including substance abuse treatment for addicts and alcoholics.

America’s greatest natural resource is its people. We owe it to ourselves and our children to ensure we take better care of that natural resource. The human herd does not allow the old and weak amongst us to be thinned-out like the rest of the animals on the planet. We take care of those who cannot (and those who will not) take care of themselves… it makes us better than Darwin. There are no throw away Americans.

It is time for Republicans to step up to the plate on this issue and quit trying to obfuscate matters by bringing up tort reform and tax credits and babbling about the “creation” of some new market place for public health insurance but offering no real solution to that single-mother-of-two self employed hair-stylist… especially if she has had a bout of the breast cancer or if one of her kids has special-needs. The same thing happened last November, the Republican Party did not offer up a real conservative candidate, but a Liberal-Light, and were clobbered. If the heads-in-the-sand Republican leadership continue to refuse to address this issue and won’t counter this European-style socialized medicine with a true solution we will get what we deserve for our failure: A single payer system…

A single payer system, like the one The Dirty Dems are so hot for, will only breed mediocrity in the medical field and will stagnate research and innovation. A single payer system, like the one Barney FrankBarney Frank is so sweet on, will mean an end to the health insurance industry and put all the Americans who work for those companies in the unemployment lines. A single payer system, like the one the American Medical Association has just come out against[5], will lead to a rationing of care with bureaucrats, not doctors, prescribing (or withholding) treatment. The abuses of the VA that I have named are but a few of the many[6][7][8][9][10] committed against veterans under our Government Health Care Plan. This is the kind of “colonoscopy”-style treatment every American will just come to expect in the future under this ominous Obama-care[11] omnibus. Jon Bon JoviJon Bon Jovi didn’t even sing about medicine that bad.

[1] “On January 22, 2007, a Veterans Health Administration Information Technology Specialist assigned to VA Medical Center (VAMC), Birmingham, AL, reported that a VA-owned external hard drive was missing. The missing external hard drive is believed to contain personally identifiable information and/or individually identifiable health information for over 250,000 veterans, and information obtained from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), on over 1.3 million medical providers…” READ the rest of the official Government investigation at http://www.va.gov/oig/51/FY2007rpts/VAOIG-07-01083-157.pdf

[2] “The government is testing drugs with severe side effects like psychosis and suicidal behavior on hundreds of military veterans... In one such experiment involving the controversial anti-smoking drug Chantix, the VA took three months to alert its patients about severe mental side effects. The warning did not arrive until after one of the veterans taking the drug had suffered a psychotic episode that ended in a near lethal confrontation with police…” -- Washington Times / ABC News article at http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/jun/17/va-testing-drugs-on-war-veterans/print/

[3] “Three U.S. Vets have tested positive for the aids virus after more than 10,000 were exposed…” --FoxNew.com / Associated Press story at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,517129,00.html

[4] “Republicans to Unveil Their Health Care Plan Wednesday-- Republicans have drawn up a plan called the Patients' Choice Act which lacks a public government option for health care and is unlikely to be passed.” --FOXNews.com at http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/05/19/republicans-unveil-health-care-plan-wednesday/

[5] “The nation's largest doctors group isn't sold on President Barack ObamaBarack Obama's call for a public health plan and could be a hurdle to his reform efforts…” The Associated Press Thursday, June 11, 2009; 10:16 AM :

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/11/AR2009061101773.html?sub=AR

[6] “Commission has questions for VA hospital” at http://www.dailysoutherner.com/statenews/local_story_099120113.html/

[7] “ VA DEATHS” at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1046785

[8] “VETERANS DIE, BUT VA HOSPITAL EXECS STILL GET BONUSES -- The VA paid bonuses of more than $335,000 to top North Carolina hospital managers during years when it received reports of poor patient care and suspicious deaths.” At http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/569447.html

[9] “Lawmakers Grill VA Execs About Care” at http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,133068,00.html

[10] Etc., etc.… Google it! It’s scary how many!

[11] “President Barack Obama says he is not interested in a system of nationalized health care but does believe a single-payer system has some appeal...” -- The Associated Press Thursday, June 11, 2009; 1:39 PM :

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/11/AR2009061102400.html