It is estimated that well over half of all medical expenses are attributable to unhealthy behaviors such as lack of exercise, overeating and poor choice of foods, smoking, alcohol and other drug abuse and the failure to take recommended screening tests and comply with drug regimens. The savings resulting from an effective prevention program could ultimately exceed $500 billion annually.
Just as liberal politicians have again and again unconscionably sold America’s schoolchildren down the river in order to buy union votes and campaign money – no matter the consequences for academic outcomes, so too will they support all the wrong kinds of so-called health care reform.
With the country already facing trillions in new debt and the likelihood of major tax increases, it’s downright reckless and irresponsible to unnecessarily adopt sweeping, untried changes in the system. Such changes could prove to be the straw that broke the camel’s back when it comes to our nation’s economy. And once adopted, they will undoubtedly be extremely difficult to reverse.
We need only look at what happened in Massachusetts where a state mandated health insurance plan has so greatly exceeded original cost estimates that analysts believe “bureaucratic rationing and price controls” are right around the corner. And with them, a lower quality of care.
So why invite total catastrophe when we can use today’s heightened interest in health care reform to find out what really works and then apply it to fashioning a sound new national approach that most of us would then gladly support? Surely getting health care reform right should be far more important than rushing to judgment for the sake of political expediency.