How to reform healthcare

I read with interest your posts in Donald Lambro's column today, and must say I disagree completely with your basic premise that it is moral for the government to take money from me and give it to someone else without my permission.

Your arguments are too numerous for me to spend much time on at present, but I must take exception with one statement you made that is patently false.

"It is also pathetic that medical facilities can charge 10x more to a private person than an insurance company."

To the contrary, and I know from first hand experience in the last month, one pays a lot less for medical procedures if you pay cash rather than bill your insurance company. I had pneumonia, and went in to my doctor after I recovered to get a checkup X-ray. As I don't have insurance (by choice), I asked the clerk at the outpatient desk ahead of time how much it would cost. She told me $22 cash. I asked how much they charge if I had insurance, and she told me $116.

The same deal goes with my dentist. He told me that he charges me half as much paying cash as he does his patients with insurance.

If you want to argue successfully, please check your facts first.

Goverment takes from people and gives to others in every economic system. The only exception to that would be in utopian communist systems and systems where there is no government whatsoever (anarchy). Your elected representatives make decisions about your taxes and where those funds go. So, you may disagree with the amount a police officer or a teacher makes, whether a road should be built or whether an old age home should be funded but your only recourse is to try to lobby the elected official or vote that officail out. You seem to have a utopian idea about it not being "moral" for you to be taxed where somebody receives your tax revenue. There are many 3rd world countries that do not have any functioning government -- none are countries I would desire living in -- I doubt you would like them either.

You are factually incorrect about what providers charge. Your anecdotal examples are just anecdotal examples. Here is a cite to a study where the average differential is 2 1/2 times for those lacking insurance versus those with insurance. http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSN07375855200 70508

YOU, need to learn facts, not me. You should also understand the reason hospitals charge insurance companies less: (1) high likelihood of being being paid from insurance companies (versus high numbers of those w/out insurance not paying) (2) discounts are always given when someone will give 1000 medical procedures per year versus 1. Likewise, if I were to buy 1000 cars, I would not pay as much per car if I bought 1 car.

YES, there are cases where it is literally 10 times more for procedures. Why not take some time and prove that I am wrong about my assertions (you will not be able to). You are being sloppy -- and it is not argument when you just deny facts and cite anecdotal matters that have little to do with the aggregate system.

Patently false? Do you do this often when you don't know what you are talking about?