1989TransAm wrote:"The road to hell is paved with good intentions".
Harry, that is correct. I believe people such as Stan that support the bill have good intentions. I also believe that the hierarchy of the Democrat party and others are using the health-care bill as a power play and expand the reaches of the government. Health-care represents one sixth of our economy and that is one big slush fund to play with. Can you say single payer? Can you say unionizing? That is the road paved to hell.
That's pretty much the way I see it as well, TransAm...... With the exception of unions. All unions are not carbon copies of the SEIU and their thugs who have engaged in all manner of intimidation on Obama's behalf and mimic Hitler's SA brownshirts more often than not. I worked for many years as a union pipefitter and plumber on heavy construction jobs and am retired now. Don't group all union people into one stereotype...... I can tell you for a fact that our union and its members are nothing like that.We worked hard for what we got. There was no featherbedding and no 'job security'. You performed and did your job or you went back to the hiring hall at the end of the line. It wasn't a walk in the park by any means. For every high rise building you see on the Houston skyline, an average of 5 to 7 men died over 18 months or so putting them up (some jobs more, some jobs less). Most folks see 'progress' when they drive into town. But for me, the silhouette of each tall building resembles a tombstone.
Unions exist only where there is a long term situation where workers have legitimate grievances that management refuses to address in good faith and there are workers willing to risk their livelihood and their families' security to join together and get management to address those issues. Except for such situations, there is no reason to consider forming a union. In workplaces where workers are treated fairly, paid a fair wage for their labour and have reasonably safe working conditions...... They are better off without unions.
And no, I don't get any health care insurance as a part of my retirement package, 'Cadillac' or otherwise. My wife and I haven't had health care insurance since 2003. Its all out of pocket. That is because the place I worked at the time (the Engineering Dept. of a municipality) had such sorry and high priced insurance that we opted out. Later, they came up with an equally sorry HSA plan, which we opted out of as well. And no, I wouldn't support 'Obamacare', even if I got it free. I care too much about my country and the future of my kids, my grandkids and future generations of Americans to sell them out as has the present 'administration'.
How can we 'fix' health care? Simple. Treat it like a race car. If we make changes to a race car to address progressively changing track conditions at different venues and down the line, it runs slower, what do we do? We retrace our steps back to the point where it was running best before we began tweaking things and go from there.
Same with health care. When did our health care system last work for us rather than against us? That's easy to answer...... Before so-called 'managed health care'...... At which point, the insurance companies began calling the shots and inserting themselves between doctor and patient, between hospital and patient, etc. Go back to the system we had priour to 'managed health care' and tweak only those few things that can actually be improved upon...... Rather than allowing government to take over health care and destroy the best health care system in the world as a pretext to institute socialism in this country.
Best regards,
Harry
