An Improbable Victory

Congratulations to congress for taking a giant step toward securing better medical care for all Americans. We should keep the momentum going and get at some of the roots of our soaring healthcare costs. We need tort reform, stricter fraud enforcement, and we need to plainly live healthier. Health is a human right, and like most rights, it comes with responsibility. We should have the right to be treated for unforeseen accidents and genetically or environmentally induced ailments. We should also be treated for conditions caused or exacerbated by our choices, but we should pay for it. Cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana (once legalized), and even fatty foods should have ridiculous taxes levied on them, and that money should go directly into subsidizing health care. Yes, I believe that french fries, Doritos, Twinkies and the like should be taxed at ridiculous levels. Americans will continue down the self-destructive path of obesity as long as it is cheaper to eat unhealthy. As Americans get fatter, health care costs will go up astronomically.

We do have the best doctors and hospitals in the world, but we do not have best system of delivering care. Canada and other countries with socialized medicine have their problems, but their systems are sustainable, and no one in Canada will be financially ruined by a health problem. Some paranoid citizens say they don’t want the government to get between them and their doctor. Do they really prefer stockholders who make more money if a patient dies or doesn’t receive treatment at all? Capitalism cannot be trusted when it comes to our health and safety. Profits=cutting corners. So, if you are really going to call socialism a great evil, then from now on you must boycott it. That means home-schooling your kids, delivering your own mail, putting out your own fires, policing your own streets, and growing and inspecting your own food.