Americans shouldn’t allow themselves to be conned again

Opinion: August 16, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

EDITOR:

Americans were conned into believing there was an extreme urgency to pass the Stimulus Bill in January, or the country would collapse. Cap and Trade was likewise rushed through Congress before anyone could read the bill. Now Atty. David J. Betras suggests in an Aug. 2 letter that Republicans are conning the country and lying about the facts of national health care. Find out for yourselves at www.nchc.org, National Coalition on Health Care. Go to “Facts About Health Care,” then “World Health Care Data.”

We’re being told there is a health care crisis in this country, but there’s nothing wrong with our health care. There is, however, a health cost crisis, and one of the causes is that attorneys convince many Americans to sue over even the most frivolous injury or incident, knowing that insurance companies settle nearly all of these cases rather than incur the greater expense of a trial. It’s a win-win for the attorney and client, but everyone else loses by paying higher premiums. Fix this first with “loser pays” and real tort reform. Treat the causes and not just the symptoms. (Google “Stella Awards”)

The Obama plan is a means to pay for health care by making us all pay more, and believe me, it will be all of us and not just the millionaires. When has our government EVER run a program efficiently? The bureaucracy in this bill will be enormous. Government-managed health care means you will be told when you can see a specialist. In countries with national health care, the average waiting period between seeing a specialist and going to surgery is three months.

There are several provisions in the bill for “community organizations” to help out, and it looks like ACORN will be at the top of that list to provide hospice for those deemed too old for surgery or treatment. You also WILL be paying for the uninsured, including those that choose not to buy insurance and all the illegal aliens who use our medical facilities. In fact, we are paying for the illegals now through increased hospital charges to cover those losses from the uninsured. When some people can’t pay, the hospital increases the charge for an aspirin, for example, by a penny. Do you know what an aspirin costs in the hospital today?

Self-discipline and personal responsibility aren’t part of the Health Care Bill, either, but they should be. We should be teaching our children how to take care of themselves and others. Starting with basic first aid in 6th grade, this should progress up through the 12th grade with military-style “Self Aid and Buddy Care,” SABC. One of the biggest reasons people rush to the emergency rooms is that they don’t know what to do for simple injuries and illnesses. Also, there is not a single reference anywhere in this bill regarding curing any disease.

So when it comes to conning and lying to the public, it appears that we are now dealing with masters of the craft in this administration. We are all gradually being taken down the path toward socialism. We need to put the brakes on this socialist power train and bring it to a halt before we experience the greatest train wreck in history.

Dr. DONALD K. ALLEN

Youngstown