There is No Such Things as Free Universal Healthcare

I just need to spout off a bit here about healthcare and the idea that the government should pay for everyone to have health insurance.

It sounds lovely, except "the government" doesn't have money.

It takes my money and your money to pay for the things it does.

And on the surface, the idea that we all pay a little more in taxes to give everyone "free" health insurance seems fair.

But the problem is that without regulations restricting the costs of medicines, hospitalization, routine immunizations, and doctor's salaries, that "free" health care will cost more and more every year, meaning that my taxes will go up and up.

And so will yours.

As the country ages, the cost of insurance will go up and up.

And we are an obese nation, so the costs will go up even more.

And the insurance companies will decide that they want more money, and the pharmaceutical companies will want more money, and the nurses and doctors will want more money (because they are paying more taxes for health insurance) so the cost of our health insurance will go up some more.

See how this works?

Are you willing to pay a third of your income in taxes to subsidize health insurance for everyone?

Maybe before we start handing out "free" stuff, we should start by restricting the costs.

And yes, doctors and nurses are wonderful people, but should they make ten or twenty or fifty times as much as a school teacher makes?

And yes, I realize that the cost of their education is obscenely high, so we probably need to address the rising cost of a public school education.

It seems like there is an awful lot to fix, doesn't there?

Maybe the government should go back to regulating insurance and big pharma costs.

Maybe more money should be spent on creating public parks.

Some more money could be spent on school so that kids get back their recess time. (Back when I was in elementary school we had two 15 minute recesses and a 30 minute recess after our 30 minute lunch. Not today.)

How about we teach kids how to cook again.

And then lets provide incentives for eating healthy and exercise, because (sadly) we seem to have forgotten how to do those things in this country.

Less medicine, more outdoors. Fewer drug, more veggies.

I would much rather pay to give people free fruit and vegetables than pay to give the insurance industry more money. I would rather fund parks and playgrounds and after school activities than big pharma.