I have mixed emotions about President Obama's nationalized health-care plan that was approved Sunday night. There's no doubt our health-care system is broken, but having the government take it over is not the answer. Haven't we learned our lesson from all these bailouts with the banks and the auto industry? What's needed is reform -- major reform.
Let's face it: Throwing more money at the problem isn't going to make it any better. Both George W. Bush and Barack Obama are guilty of that. This health-care legislation will cost more than $960 billion over the next decade alone.
No doubt a large segment of the American population could use affordable and dependable health care. But strapped on the backs of taxpayers, especially our children, this may prove disastrous.
Congresswoman Suzanne Kosmas, the first-term Democrat from New Smyrna Beach, voted with the majority of Democrats for passage of the bill, saying in part after the vote: "With the passage of this fiscally responsible health care reform legislation, we have taken a significant step towards reducing the deficit, ending unfair insurance practices, lowering health care costs, and improving coverage for Central Florida's families, seniors and small businesses."
She's absolutely right, especially in terms of unfair insurance practices and lowering health-care costs and even improving the coverage for those employed in small businesses.
But there are major drawbacks, mainly the lack of choice in doctors, a watering-down effect in competition in the health-care industry for quality care and the fact that everyone will be forced to take the health care whether they want it or not.
I am a Democrat, through and through, and one who does not have health insurance, though I do pay for my son's health care and it is expensive. Over the last five years, I've racked up close to $10,000 in health-care bills due to my life-long bronchial asthma. I make too much to be declared indigent, but not enough as a one-person business to obtain and afford reasonable health insurance. And so I pay what I can and move forward, praying for good health.
There's just no weay around the fact that this plan is socialized medicine, pushed through with no bi-partisan support. The 219 Democrats in the House saw their Republican counterparts turn their backs along with nearly two dozen fellow Democratic dissenters.
President Obamas says support of the health-care plan is not necessarily the popular thing to do, but is the right thing to do for our country. Is it?