SOMETIMES IT PAYS TO BE WRONG

Do you ever wish you’d written something down when you thought of it?   Welcome to my world.   i wish i could say i’m just too busy or handicapped or something that sounds like a good excuse for being just plain lazy.   If you prefer – as i do – “undisciplined” is a kinder description.   Yet there’s another reason i don’t write stuff down: 

i’m afraid people will think i’m crazy.

There are people out there who don’t give a wit about what others say and think about their ideas.   Unless you’re a real close friend of mine, i’m not one of those people.   Sadly (in a pathetic way), that holds me back… but not today.

Today I’m taking a risk.   Today I’m going to make a prediction for which one day I’ll be apologetic, or prescient.

For those of us who have been locked in verbal combat over “health care reform” I warn you ahead of time that what you are about to read may further polarize you.   For all the arguments we’ve been making, and for all the rhetoric and hyperbole we lobbed at each other like grenades, we’ve been wasting our breath and energy over “apples and oranges” in some twisted cultural cockfight. 

Many of us have been reduced to labeling arguments as “hate” and people as evil not for the purpose of elevating a position, but in an attempt to convince ourselves that we on this side or that side are better humans.   Let me dispel any confusion about that at the outset:  there are no “good” humans.  We often do “good” things with “good” results, but ultimately they are to serve our interests  in the end.

Our shared affliction is that we’re terminally selfish and chronically judgmental.  There are the remnants of something good in each of us, but absent the proper transformation and spiritual alchemy we are forever scratching and clawing and biting and acquiring at the expense of others.

Enter…the point.

Anybody who has a business or runs a household will confess that debt is a killer.  The constant struggle to live within your means is just part of the equation.  When faced with the prospect of increased costs there are basically two options:  decrease spending, or increase revenue.

Quality, affordable healthcare does not exist.

Healthcare reform is going to cost a bundle and it does little to nothing by way of increasing the quality or availability of healthcare.    Usually, anything of measurable quality is reflected in its cost – that’s just axiomatic.  The reasons this new system will be costly are simple, basic:  delivery of services has an actual cost and the insurable pool is larger.   That is the quintacential actuarial rule.   There are solid reasons an insurer drops or denies coverage and none of them are because they’re greedy, callous or evil.   If they didn’t, they’d go broke.   The necessary consequence of attempting an end-around these rules will result in higher premiums, fees and/or taxes levied on the present payers into the system.   More importantly, increasing the pool of “insured” without increasing the number of health-service providers will result in shortages, long waits,  and arbitrary rationing – the feared decrease in quality.

What we’ve just done as a country to ensure that everybody is insured is a bit of a ruse.  By law, everybody already has access to healthcare; you show up at a hospital, they have to treat you.  The problem with that system is that it’s an unfunded, pay-as-you-go plan with no measures in place to limit access or to increase revenues to pay for it without borrowing.  Much of the reimbursements to that system come from the general coffers or are borrowed from other funds.   This equals debt.

By insuring everybody up front, the government has in essence decided to fund the previously unfunded mandate.  But how?

That’s a great question.  The answer to which is still unclear.  But what is clear is that by passing the law, the government now has permission to raise those revenues in whatever manner they wish.   Where do YOU think they’re going to go to get it?

Here’s what I think.

The perfect storm of a Recession and the ensuing “jobless recovery” coupled with our national debt and continued deficit spending has produced a mandate in the minds of a certain ideological ilk.  They just happen to be running the country at the moment and for better or worse they believe a few things ought to be.  

They profess to believe… life should be fair and that anybody who has more than somebody else should be liberated from their excess by a hero.  And they believe this NOT because it’s moral (and they will tell you it is), but because those who are on the receiving end of that exchange will forever owe their champion.

 This is why Amnesty is in the works.

 Oh, they’ll tell us it’s about raising revenues by getting “undocumented immigrants” “out of the shadows and on to the books”.  But in reality it’s about tapping into an ever-expanding and grateful constituency. The net effect of Amnesty upon which they’re counting is that those new citizens will vote their saviors back into office, first to offset the disgruntled shift in the populace, and next to provide leadership in perpetuity.

 In the end it won’t begin to fund the lofty goals brandished in these intermediary steps and the huge debts will remain.   Amnesty is a one way ticket to bankruptcy.   Draconian steps are on the horizon to “balance the books” unless the door slams shut on this big government foot.   If the whole camel comes in the tent… well, use your imagination about living in a tent with a camel.

The golden goose will be chained to the radiator and forced to lay more golden eggs on a diet of gruel… or be gut to reveal its secrets.

 And we all know how that story ends.