Health Care/Insurance

So, this week, the Obama Administration is planning its takeover of the American Health Care system.  Let's see:  the banks have been taken over, as have the car companies; the federal budget has had an extra $800 Billion to spend in "economic stimulus" funds.  Unemployment is at a 25 year high.  So of course, move on to a new massive undertaking.  Do you like this stuff?  Having radical changes go on every month or so?   Is this what we elected?  

The term in favor today is "Health Care."  I prefer to call it medical insurance.  I suppose polls must show the combination of "health" and "care" elicits a more positive response than medical insurance.  The problem, so we are told by some of our political leaders, is that so many people do not have "health care."  What they really mean is that they do not have insurance which covers medical matters.  I grew up with no insurance.  I never had it until I was 24 years old, not counting college clinics.  And it wasn't something we fretted about.  If something came up, we went to the doctor and we got it looked at.  

But I cannot say that we can go back to those days of paying the doctor in cash or check with each visit.  Expenses are too high now.  Conservatives look at the high expenses and see a medical establishment not having to compete on the basis of price because consumers don't really pay the bill directly anymore.  They also see technological advances that are quite expensive playing a factor as well.  Liberals see greedy insurance company executives.  

The conservative solution is to have a catastrophic health insurance plan as well as a Health Savings Account.  Sadly, these initiatives have not gotten very far due to the roadblocks placed by the liberals in congress.  Now that they are in power, they seek to have the government be the one insurance company for all of us.  

I do not trust the federal government to create a better health insurance plan than the one I currently have, so I do not want them to interfere.  I also feel that their interference will hinder access for medical matters, and I do not want that to happen.

Most of all, can't we let the economy recover as well as deal with Afghanistan, Iraq, North Korea and Iran before we blow up our entire health care industry?

The New American Car Company?

A few weeks ago I opined that no entrepreneur would start up a new car company today in the face of so much government regulation.  Well, the cover story of the latest Forbes disagrees with that assessment.  They write:

"The implosion of General Motors and Chrysler has sparked a flurry of innovators like [Henrik] Fisker. They are reminiscent of the entrepreneurs in the car industry's early days, when Henry Ford, Ransom E. Olds, Henry Studebaker and many now forgotten dreamers competed for technological leadership with steam-, electricity- and gasoline-powered cars. By the early 1910s the internal combustion engine won out. Amazingly, the means of propulsion--indeed the car business itself--has changed little since then."

I read the article to learn if I had been wrong.  Yes, it is true that Henrik Fisker has a solid plan to deliver new vehicles to American consumers in the next three years.  But, he's looking at selling $88,000 hybrid sports cars.  Later, he expects to have a $50,000 plug-in available.  

I submit that the development of these specialty concept cars will not make a significant impact on the marketplace.  In my mind, the whole problem with the auto industry is that the vehicles are simply too expensive.  Fisker and the other entrepreneurs mentioned will do nothing to achieve broad appeal.  The startup costs for his company are very high.  In addition, he is seeking financial aid from U.S. government program.  So, is he really an entrepreneur?  

Cars, Abortion, Crime

Big news has happened again over the last three days and I'm realizing that we're just repeating the same stuff again.  

 

1-GM files bankruptcy as the Obama administration asserts ownership of a company.

2-Notorious and unrepentant Kansas abortionist George Tiller murdered on Sunday.

3-14 Year Old suburban boy set upon by thugs and killed in Maryland on Saturday.

GM:  What more can I say about my feelings about government control of a car company?  It's a disturbing trend that would not have happened under Republican leadership.  Hopefully, there is still a philosophical difference in that Republicans would not take ownership of the company.  Maybe we'd bail them out with loans but to assert real control smacks of socialism.  

Abortion.  Tiller's murder was wrong.  That is obvious.  No justification for it.  What motivated the crazed killer to do it?  Was it the fact that Tiller just kept getting away with such depraved behavior (60,000 abortions!) that the crazed killer was so tormented in his mind that he unjustifiably felt it was up to him to put a stop to it?  

Murder in Crofton, Maryland.  Some older kids killed a younger kid who was riding a bike.  Is that the end of it.  Probably, but it would not be if the victim and suspects races were reversed.  As it turns out, the 16 year old being charged as an adult is named Javel.  Enough said.  But if the victim was named Javel, there would be hell to pay from Al Sharpton and the NAACP.  If the press wants to act responsible, then let them NEVER discuss race in these crimes whether the victims and suspects are white or black or Hispanic.  Of course, Hate Crimes laws specifically bring race into the discussion, and the press will always let itself be used by the race baiters in our society.  I don't like to discuss race but one of my purposes in writing this blog is to point out double standards.