HEALTH CARE REFORM COSTS

For months now I've been listening, studying and researching the topic of health care reform. It's actually depressing. The two loudest voices are the two most polar opposites: the status quo side and the government take-over side. Anyone dealing with the system over the last twenty years knows it can be a nightmare: needs not met, overcharges, mistakes (costing over 90,000 lives per year) and the feeling that you are just a piece of meat to those supposed to take care of us. Yet, given all that, I would rather face this than go to Canada, England or France to face their idea of state sponsored and supported health care.

It can't be denied that there needs to be change. Where we look for that change is the question. Is it, as our president believes, only through a massive government take-over of the entire system? All one has to do is read the largest, most comprehensive bill proposed on the the subject by congress--HR3200; the opening line of which starts out quite lofty but ends quir omminously: "to provide affordable, quality health care for all...and for other purposes." It's the "OTHER PURPOSES" that should worry us all. I'm one of the few people I know of who have actually bothered to read through the bill (not a fun or very easy task, trust me). It is rather scary the amount of power the government wants to give itself over my health.

I've worked many years to gain a good job with reasonably good health insurance benefits. HR 3200 allows a government bureaucrat to arbitrarily take it all away. If I choose to change any of my benefits, I WILL be put on the government insurance option. If he or she so chooses, they have the authority to take away my own insurance and replace it with government insurance It's nothing done on my part, it can just be a bureaucrat "deciding what's best for me."

What's even more sad is the fact that private, charity driven hospitals such as Shriners Hospitals for Children, the more than 600 hospitals of the Catholic Health Association or St. Judes Research Hospital will face disastrous new rules and regulations. Let's remember what these places do; they help those--usually the poorest of citizens--who can't help themselves. the Shriners help not only America's children, but go to other countries (usually Mexico and Central America) to treat children. They will even bring them to one of their hospitals in the states, letting them live and go the school at the hospital for months at a time, just so they can help children. New government regulations will curtail and even stop much of this. The same goes for St. Judes and the Catholic hospitals. The CHA also faces another challenge in that the government reform of health care also means ALL hospitals would be forced to perform abortions on demand. for the Catholics this is a stipulation that has brought much angst and concern.

Catholic Bishops have stated that they would have to shut down many, if not all, their hospitals rather than be forced to perform abortions. Many have asked, "why not just sell to another organization who can run the hospital?" It could be that committing a sin or just allowing the committing of a sin are one in the same. So the CHA is in a quandry; having to weigh the help they provide to so many who would otherwise be without help against one of the basic tenets of Catholic social teaching-- that ALL LIFE IS SACRED.

And what's the one thing that ties all of these institutions together? The fact that their only concern is for the welfare and health of those they treat. The don't care about political ties, monetary abilities, immigration status, parental lifestyles or what faith (or lack thereof) you may profess. They actually live up to their ideals of helping mankind. gosh, what a concept.

As far as the Obama administration is concerned, to reform health care to aid the small percentage of people who truly need help, the government has to destroy what does work, what does help and what a hundred million americans have acheived. I guess that's always been the cost of allowing the government to "fix" all our problems.