You Can’t Afford to Give What You Don’t Have, My take on “Obama care”

By Bernadette A. Moyer 

Did you enjoy your last visit to the Department of Motor Vehicles or to the Social Security Administration offices? How about the United States Post Office? Did you feel that your business mattered to them and was it handled in an efficient amount of time? Do you live on a budget or do you have an infinite amount of money?

Let’s start with the money issue, even the wealthiest people in America have a finite amount of dollars to spend. Most people have a budget and know that you can’t have more money go out than the amount of money coming in. Our government is constantly spending more than they take in and it seems like whatever they do take in, is never enough.

How much more debt does our country need to assume before we say, “stop the madness!”

Government services like the trip to the Department of Motor Vehicles makes me want to stab myself in the eye. It seems like the people that work there are unmotivated and just don’t care. Not all of them but a large portion of them.

Several years ago we called a private tree removal contractor to come and remove a large dead tree at the front of our house. The estimate came in at $2,800 and the contractor thought it would take a half a day to remove it. He suggested we contact the county first, since he believed the tree was located on the county side of our sidewalk.  It turned out the tree was on the county side and it was their responsibility, of course not having to pay the $2,800 was a huge relief.

The county sent two trucks and 4 workmen out to remove the tree. It took them 2 ½ days of work. Two days longer than what the contractor anticipated for the same job. It was frustrating to witness and several neighbors made comments. These guys took long lunch breaks sitting and laying on our front lawn. They sat in our rocking chairs on our front porch and they didn’t seem to have a care in the world as they worked a bit, smoked a bit and relaxed a bit. A private contractor running a business and making a living would never have done this nor would he have tolerated or afforded employees that took their good old time working while he was paying them. We watched how our tax dollars were being spent.

Taking care of people is noble, there is nothing greater than helping someone who needs help and is sick and needs medical care. My mother was a registered nurse and her brother is a doctor. I had a brief but eye opening experience when I was younger and worked in a Catholic hospital. Health care is important!

Catholic hospitals have never denied anyone care even when they couldn’t pay for their care. The bigger questions for me are; why does health care have to cost so much? Why does an aspirin have to cost $10 when it is distributed in a hospital? The average cost of one night in a hospital is over $4,000? Do we really believe with managed government care these costs will be less and there won’t be any abuse in the system?

The Veterans Administration has clinics, why can’t we provide “free” health care for those who can’t afford it in a government run clinic? I was stunned and shocked by our Supreme Court opinion on health care. I read somewhere, a woman stated, “I have never paid taxes on something I didn’t purchase.” So now it is a tax, and it is assessed if you don’t buy insurance?

In my career I have been fortunate to work in both for profit and not for profit. For profit makes no excuse they need to make money. Most of the business owners that I know are also very generous when it comes to helping those with less. The not for profit model is often a social worker model, start with nothing but an idea/cause and build as you go, given the right idea/cause this often works toward building a successful organization. People want to donate to causes that do good work and help those in need.

We seem to be dumbed down, where are the same brain trusts like those that built Apple and Facebook to help create an efficiently run health care system that affords quality care that people want to purchase? It is a need that needs to be filled, no doubt. But are we going about it in the right way?

There has been a battle between lawyers and doctors that is well documented. So many lawyers want to sue for malpractice at the drop of a hat. They want to hold doctors up like they are Gods. Yes, sometimes they are at fault and other times they are being pressed for cash. What would health care cost if doctors weren’t paying outrageous medical mal-practice insurance? How much of that $10 aspirin and over $4,000 a night hospital stay is going toward insurance premiums for the hospitals and the doctors?

Again I don’t have the answers and yes, it is quite noble to want to provide health care for everyone, but who is paying for it? Nothing is free. One thing I know for sure, I personally have no interest in medical care that is handled like the services I receive from the Department of Motor Vehicles or from people like the county workers who removed the tree out front.

Thanks, but no thanks! There has got to be a better way …