Buying your own health care is a far bigger bargain than getting it for free. While it's not fun to add yet another scheduled purchase, people are already getting hosed for plans without ever seeing a bill. Invoices for insurance would solve many problems related to acquiring and maintaining health other than the Obamacare-style quest to get someone else to make you pay so you get things without paying.
Those still clinging to notions that kindness should take the form of Postal Servicizing hospitals think that the government's diktats will improve our lives because they're supposed to do so. The law said bad things wouldn't happen, so it's impossible that they will unless people dare react negatively to challenging circumstances. The decreased productivity to compensate for the brutally clueless government's attempt to care for us represents the difference between the namesake of the legislation's utopian promises and dystopian results, at least until the androids replace us and our stupid human reactions.
Addressing one's own needs is so 2007. Still, perhaps we'd get the best care if we were allowed to care for ourselves. Members of the hive never stop to ponder the possibility that people could buy coverage without the supervision of a work supervisor, much less a cabinet secretary.
Like the nation itself, America's health care is headed in the wrong direction. People shouldn't be getting a health plan through work any more than they should rely on the government for financial guidance. Having both equals nothing.
Even people who stop to consider why we have the pre-Obamacare system might not believe the reason. The work-connected system began with a World War II law to circumvent wage limits by making health insurance deductible only if provided by an employer. Yes, it's hideously stupid that our entire approach for treating the infirm has been based on an emergency wartime dodge of another federal regulation. But it's not surprising unless this is your first encounter with Washington.
The pain won't dissipate by rubbing the wounds with glass shards. Obamacare is merely an extension of federal dictation regarding how you're to be treated. The employer tax exemption is already a mild mandate that divorces customers from prices or choice and providers from true competition. Sure, it's way better than the first step toward Cubacare. But we were already occasionally slumming in the free clinic.
Competition forces efficient healing, as heartless insurers would have to offer a desired service at the best cost. As with every other human activity, our well-being improves through mutual exchange. If we could buy affordable health packages from the same sites that offer us car insurance, decent folks might even have enough left over to contribute to treatment for the disadvantaged. By contrast, a mandate assumes people won't help and keeps them from doing so by raising costs high enough to consume any extra income, anyway.
The looming elective surgery is already comically immoral aside from pretending that expecting others to cover the price of lousy state-run insurance qualifies as charity. It's too gross to be amusing that such a conscience-trouncing law was brought to you by those who are allegedly pro-choice. Compared to forcing everyone to pay for abortions, mandating that companies pay for birth control seems downright tame. Stammering proponents are already acting as if their right to commit what others consider wicked behavior is being quashed if those participating have to pay for it.
Splitting the tab on baby prevention and termination assuages those who thought Nancy Pelosi's pet health scheme was not objectionable enough. Even without fulfilling Margaret Sanger's demonic dreams, keep in mind the government's axiomatic tendency to raise costs and weaken coverage without helping those who currently go without. Other than that, it'll be beneficial.
A law mandating help is the surest way to abolish help that was already provided. Instead of giving paychecks and insurance, companies will drop their employees onto exchanges or down to part-time because of the apparently rotten instinct to stay in business.
Who knew that everyone would respond to deleterious conditions by doing what they can to avoid them? Well, conservatives did. But at least liberals now get to say everyone is covered no matter how thin the blankie is, which maintains their minimum smug levels until they can blame another hurricane on global warming.
At least some states may get to flip off a contagious capital. The only pleasant unintended consequence of Obamacare is an opportunity to give federalism a try. Resisting state-level exchanges makes it fun to be subversive, not to mention the only way to stay healthy. Both the salubrious condition of each state's finances and of those who need medical attention are at risk for as long as Washington monitors our chart.
It's better to buy your own things, unless you also think employers can choose dinner for you better than you can. Costs would decrease as options grew if we made insurers compete for your business instead of settling for what your jackoff manager chooses for you. The only less qualified candidate to run your medical destiny is a befuddled president.
Those receiving a benefits package in compensation for employment aren't getting healthy without charge now: you're just getting paid less in exchange for getting to choose from one insurance provider. Seemingly complimentary services become even less so when the government takes another step into the office. A truly free insurance market with plans available outside of work would negate the urge to loathe Mister Papa John for letting workers head to exchanges, although national health advocates should be pleased to have the government caring for people instead of a mean pizzeria proprietor.
Barack Obama seems intent on removing the barrier to getting insurance through work by creating as much unemployment as possible. Removing the special tax treatment so that people could buy their own instead of forcing the state to force us would be a more compassionate path to wider coverage. At least the alternative, namely being jobless and reliant upon the entity that brought us the stimulus for one's well-being, will make us feel better: there will no more uninsured Americans, even if nobody and nothing works.
Anthony Bialy is a writer and “Red Eye” conservative in New York City. He tweets at http://twitter.com/AnthonyBialy.
