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Monday, June 01, 2009
Star Parker :: Townhall.com Columnist
Rights, responsibilites and health care
by Star Parker
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Want to know what troubles our American health care system?

Consider the thoughts of psychiatrist and Nazi death camp survivor Viktor Frankl.

After spending time in our country as a visiting professor, he saw the looming dangers of freedom without responsibility. He observed: "Freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness. That is why I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast."

We as Americans accept that health care is an individual right, even if someone else is paying for it. The truth that every personal right must have an accompanying personal responsibility is now lost in our self-absorbed materialistic culture. We have only rights, entitlements if you will.

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Few have any idea what the costs are of the health care they receive. Many get it tax subsidized through their employer, many get it through Medicare in a now bankrupt Ponzi scheme in which those working pay taxes to pay for care of those retired, and more than sixty million Americans do not pay at all through Medicaid and SCHIP programs.

Hundreds of millions receive health care the costs of which have little or nothing to do with their own personal realities and then we wonder why those costs are out of control.

Now Ted Kennedy has introduced his solution to all of this, which also captures the thinking of our president. Set up a new government health care plan, subsidized of course by taxes, and call this choice because you are not forced to take it (although you are forced to pay taxes for it).

As Senator Kennedy announces more free health care -- meaning one group of Americans will get what another group of Americans will pay for -- the disconnect between who gets health care services and who pays for them will grow even greater.

Costs will be controlled, according to Senator Kennedy, by setting up a new army of bureaucrats who will get rid of proverbial "fraud and abuse," will decide for doctors how to treat their patients, and will decide for us how we should behave by dictating the preventative measures we must take for our own good. Continued...
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About The Author
Star Parker is a nationally syndicated columnist through the Scripps Howard News Service and a regular commentator on CNN, MSNBC, and FOX News, as well as author of White Ghetto: How Middle Class America Reflects Inner City Decay.
 
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Reply # 1
Date: Jun 6, 2009 - 8:58 PM EST
Ah ah ah, Obama says too many calories!
Gov't "will decide for us how we should behave by dictating the preventative measures we must take for our own good."

Now there's a little price tag for you!

I can give one local illustration. In Oregon, fast food restaurants were supposed to be required to place nutritional info panels on their menus. People said, "This is burdensome. This is silly. It's none of the gov't's buisiness. It's easy to look up this info if any one needs it."

The gov't responded, "It's our business because we provide health care."

The implications are quite frightening, even if the example seems trivial at first glance.
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Reply # 2
Date: Jun 6, 2009 - 5:39 PM EST
How we got here--a confession
Voice of Reason (Reply #4), I want to talk to you--how can we make contact?

Present health care problems caused by the government and attorneys? Yes, but there is more--see below what I posted on another website:

"I understand the frustration many feel about health care. The costs are extremely high. In that regard, I have a CONFESSION to make--here goes:
Prior to the early 1970's--most of you were very young or not yet born--health care costs were much, MUCH LOWER than they are now--about 1/100th!
Consider this--health care is repairs & maintenance on our bodies. Prior to about 1970, we handled it the same way we STILL handle R&M on our homes, cars, etc.-- we took personal responsibility for it—so it naturally followed that we held providers ACCOUNTABLE for the quality AND cost.
Using these basic economic principles, costs and quality were kept at reasonable levels.
So, what happened in the early 70's?
This: employer sponsored health insurance which gradually became “full coverage” insurance (everything covered!) Yes, I AND MY GENERATION FELL FOR IT!
At that point, personal responsibility and accountability (see above)were abandoned and costs began to spiral upward.
It was like leaving the chicken house door open on a cold night. The result--dead chickens. What got the chickens? The cold? Wild animals? Thieves? Yes, but the BASIC PROBLEM was WE LEFT THE DOOR OPEN!
The cost of a 24-hour hospital stay in my area went from $100 in 1969 to $10,000 by 2006. Why? Because we abandoned those basic economic principles that control costs.
So, what to do? You may prefer a government program--I prefer to educate people, find ways to expose and eliminate most of the waste, etc., and get back to the basic economic principles. Then health care will again be affordable for most Americans. Big job? Yes, huge job--maybe impossible--but I am going to try."

Voice of Reason, we need to get going before the government completely takes over!




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