I saw this written on another thread on this site:
"Also, don't buy into right-wing propaganda. Nothing in Obama's plan says that the government will choose for you. In fact, just the opposite. He wants to provide more choices to allow for more competition. Do you like your school? Would you like it if you were poor and there was no free school so you had to pay and you had absolutely no choice to get educated? Would you want to have to compete in the world with no education? So if you are willing to provide a basic education for everyone, why not basic Healthcare for everyone. Not COMPLETE Healthcare, but basic? Why shouldn't a civilized nation want to do that for its people?"
I've heard this kind of thing bounced around for years and I always have to scratch my head and wonder if the people that write and say these things really believe them or not. Where the heck do we get the idea that it's OK to be mediocre? Why are we supposed to be satisfied with "good enough"?
Ladies and gentlemen, being an American has always meant to me that we were better than the other guys. It meant that if there was an area in which we came up short that we would go to the greatest of lengths to make sure that we DID come out on top. Being an American has always meant that we would lead by example. Where has this pride gone!!??
How the hell are we ever supposed to get ahead if we become complacent? Would you be happy if the sandwich you bought for lunch came with a bite taken out of it? How about if you had to drive around in a car with a flat tire? How about if banks just rounded your balance down to the nearest dollar? Wouldn't you be the slightest bit upset if you went to the optometrist and he gave you a prescription that was "pretty close" to allowing you to see?
This, my floort friends, is the difference between a government run America and an AMERICAN run America. This is the root of LIBERTY. This is what FREEDOM is all about!
Look, if you are content to do without this or that then, by golly, you're free to do so in this country but America is a free country and there is NO REASON that any American should be compelled to accept less than their fair measure of what they have created!
Now, I can hear it already, Luther, YOU didn't create X, Y or Z; You just bought it. Well, it all amounts to the same thing. I worked and created whatever I exchanged for X, Y or Z so, damn it, I'm supposed to be getting fair value.
I also hear the cries about the "underpriviliged" who can't afford this or that. Well....TOUGH! You can't always get what you want and there are CERTAINLY no guarantees in life so sometimes you have to man up and play the hand you're dealt. If we are conscientious about preserving our freedom then charity will, naturally, take care of the neediest. Beyond that there is the fundamental law of nature that necessity is the mother of invention.
The present "emergency" is a call for some form of universal health care or national insurance plan so that EVERYBODY will be covered equally. Well, according to the paragraph I quoted, it's already been conceeded that the coverage would be "basic". Of course there would be no coverage OTHER than "basic" if this goes through because there would be no incentive to go beyond that point! There wouldn't be any competition to encourage health providers to take things to the next level.
Here's the REALLY bad part about this idea. If we all accept some minimal or mediocre or even some excellent level of care and call it "good enough" then what happens when some new disease rears its head? We will have only one single system in which to explore means of overcoming it. One single set of options for treatment. Beyond that we have to cross our fingers and hope it works.
Today, with a vast, competetive, market of medical care we can address myriad issues. We can explore all kinds of solutions for existing problems and we have hundreds or thousands of specialists working of solutions to problems most of us haven't imagined yet. This is why the American health care system, for any and all of its faults, is the best in the world! It is a great system because it can adapt rapidly and meet the needs of the public far more efficiently than some bureaucratic quagmire ever can or will!
People, I implore you, STOP SETTLING FOR "good enough". It will be the demise of all of us.
