An open letter to flag@whitehouse.gov

Here is the text of a letter I sent to flag@whitehouse.gov. The White House has set up a special e-mail address for Americans to turn in other Americans who disagree with the President's health care plans. But since they asked us to report anything we hear that seems fishy, I thought I'd do my patriotic duty and express my 1st Amendment right to dissent.

"Fishy roomers on health care reform that I’ve heard recently:

1. Myth: There are 50 million uninsured Americans. My opinion: Most of those “50 million Americans” are illegal aliens and those who opt out of health insurance of their own choice. The actual number of uninsured Americans who cannot get health insurance is closer to four or five million.

2. Myth: If you like your insurance, you’ll be able to keep it. My opinion: True to a point, but once the legislation passes, no new insurance policies will be able to be issued by private insurance carriers.

3. Myth: Gov’t health care is necessary so insurance companies are forced to compete. My opinion: Health insurance companies are forced to compete against each other, existing gov’t programs, risks/costs, alternative health care options, foreign health care options, and gov’t regulation.

4. Myth: Reform must be passed now. My opinion: Reform is necessary, however, rushing to a decision is unacceptable.

5. Myth: If Republicans stand in the way, reform will be passed without them. My opinion: If we are going to pass sweeping reform, it must be bipartisan and have overwhelming support from the American people!

6. Myth: There will be no restriction to access. My opinion: You cannot cover an additional 50 million people without adding any health care professionals and not expect extended waits and restrictions. Additionally, when comparative analysis is implemented, options will be restricted and essentially we will be faced with rationing.

7. Myth: We will increase public spending on health care without a middle class tax cut or massive new debt. My opinion: The money has to come from somewhere and the supposed expense cuts won’t cover it all.

8. Myth: Gov’t can reduce the cost of health care. My opinion: This is simply cost shifting. There is no reduction in spending.

9. Myth: Illegal aliens will not be covered. My opinion: There is no way to enforce this.

10. Myth: People with pre-extisting conditions cannot get health care. My opinion: Everyone qualifies for health care as part of a group policy and every state has programs to cover people who cannot get private health insurance.

11. Myth: Washington, D.C. has the American people’s best interest at heart. My opinion: At the very least, Washington sold itself to lobbyists of the drug industry. If their 10s of millions of dollars in lobbying contributions weren’t effective, we would have seen reductions in trademark protections, additional subsidies for R&D, and negotiated drug prices (similar to Oregon’s prescription drug program).

12. Myth: A majority of Americans favor the plan coming out of Washington. My opinion: A majority of Americans agree we need heath care reform. A majority of Americans do not agree what that means or how it should be implemented.

Do we need health care reform? Absolutely! But Washington’s plan is not the reform we need. Appropriate reform should include HSAs coupled with comprehensive major medical/catastrophic care policies, reduction in state mandates on private health insurance providers, reduction in the cost of doing business so private employers can provide health insurance options for their employees, subsides to off-set medical education to promote people going into the health care field, subsides to encourage health care professionals to practice general medicine, subsides to build/expand health training schools/facilities, access to alternative health care options, expansion of Medicaid/Medicare to the uninsured who absolutely cannot get/afford the coverage they need, modernization of the food pyramid to better educate people on better nutrition, and promoting reparative medicine rather than symptom-management medicine."

Health care reform -- practitioners

You’ve heard of supply and demand, right? The basic idea is that for a thing, there is some amount where the demand for that thing equals the supply. Having too much of something means you have to discount it to get more people interested in it. Having too little of something means you have to charge a premium because more people want it than you have enough to sell to them.

This philosophy also applies to services. Say, doctors, for instance. A person is willing to wait a certain amount of time to see their doc. If their current doctor is booked too far out, they’ll go see another doctor. If the overall wait time is too long, the price doctors charge will increase to decrease the number of people making appointments. As the fee increases, non-doctors will decide to become doctors because the fee for service is so appealing. As more doctors enter the marketplace, the wait time to see a doc drops incenting doctors to reduce their fees to incent people to come see them. Follow?

Let me ask you a question. What would happen if we add 40 million patients without adding any doctors, nurses, pharmacists, technicians, or other health care professionals? If one-percent of them decided to go get a check-up, 400,000 additional patients would be trying to get in to see a doctor. Two things can happen. One, the price to see a doc goes up. Two, the time to see a doc will increase.

Let me ask you another question. How can President Obama promise health care for everyone in the United States without adversely effecting service? How can the President promise to increase the number of patients and limit the price health care professionals will be reimbursed and not expect wait times to increase?

One of the answers is to affordable health care for every American is more doctors, nurses and other health care professionals. Why aren’t we building more medical schools? Why aren’t we committing more finances to help medical students pay for medical school? Why aren’t we helping health care professionals repay their student loans? If you want health care costs to fall, increase the number of health care professionals.

Obama and health care

Americans are very proud of our rights. We have the right to do this. We have the right to do this. We assume we have the right to do pretty much anything we want to. An interesting thing about the rights contemplated in the Declaration of Independence and guaranteed through the Bill of Rights, all of our rights are stated in the negative. Our philosophy is that we are born endowed with certain rights and no one has the right to take those rights away from us. We establish laws and administrative rules to manage the bureaucracy and keep our communities running, but still the pattern is the same. Government shall not… You have rights because you are born. No one gave them to you. You don’t have to do anything to earn them. You simply have them.

What would happen if we suspended that pattern to define a right as something given to you by another person? We’d be dependent on another person to tell us what and when we have the right to do something. Imagine having to ask permission to voice your opinion. Imagine being a non-Caucasian male needing to ask permission to vote. Imagine a government sensor in the news rooms of America and surfing the blogosphere to approve news and opinions. Imagine police having the right to enter your home without probable cause of a crime, search your property and seize it without telling you why or for how long? Imagine being detained for an indeterminate amount of time for a reason you have no right to know. That’s the difference between inalienable rights and bestowed rights. Your rights are dependent on the whims of another person.

Barack Obama wants to make health care a right. He wants to insure every single person in the country. My family has been on private, employer-paid health care, uninsured, and recipients of public health insurance. We understand what it means to be uninsurable. A common theme is that you get what you pay for.

Our health care system has its problems. John Q spoke to me. Western medicine does not practice healing. It prescribes drugs to cover up symptoms and then more drugs to address the symptoms caused by the other drugs, and you can have access to the system if you can afford it or work for someone who can. We have traded a connection with our bodies and nature for a sterile, detached institutional model directed by drug companies, hospitals, doctors associations, medical schools, unions, and government agencies.

For what it is, our current system has been the most effective health care system in the world. It’s produced more drugs, therapies, technology, procedures, and detailed understanding of the mechanics of the human body than any other model. The medical advances achieved through the competitive model are astounding, but there is a difference between health care/management and healing and living healthy. There are many disadvantages to our current model, and until the holistic revolution restores our connection to the wisdom of the ages, it’s what we have.

Given that context, single-payer health care will bankrupt this country, slow the advance of modern medicine, frustrate the opportunity to receive the health care we want, and put our lives in the hands of actuaries calculating the cost of providing continued care.

The Government Accounting Office published a report in April of 2008 that examined the long-term challenges faced by our economy and the trends in health care costs and demographics. They founded a funding gap in the amount of $54 Trillion (that on top of the $10 Trillion national debt) to cover the lifetime benefits of those eligible to for Social Security, Medicare, and other government programs. $54 Trillion is roughly $500,000 for every household in the nation.

The reason is because our society is getting older, living longer, living less healthy, and getting sicker more often and in more ways. Obama and most other democrats want to increase this liability to cover everyone for longer! We just can’t afford it.

Just a few weeks ago, Hawaii announced that budget shortfalls led them to discontinue the nation’s only state universal child health care program in the country just seven months after it launched. One of the many problems with single-payer plans like the one in Hawaii and the one that Obama proposes is that people and businesses that can afford health care choose to let the state for it. Why pay for something if you can get it for free?

Obama’s plan reduces the incentive for innovation in our health care system by removing patent protections and allowing for importing of drugs from other countries. His plan makes the Federal government the single largest buyer (if not the only buyer) of prescription drugs in the nation. He will drive down the profit, drive down the incentive and slow the growth of medicine. We’ll see long lines, doctor shortages, and limited care. Don’t forget that people also come to this country for health care they can’t receive at home.

In spite of all the problems that come with universal health care, the most important may be the fundamental difference between an inalienable right and a bestowed right. There has to be a better way to preserve life without turning over our agency to another person.

The more guarantees a person gives you, the less opportunity they’ll allow you.