Government Can't Fix Healthcare

A few years ago when the Affordable Healthcare Act was the focus of discussion for the nation, I was doing security work for an NFL team in their stadium. I would occasionally invite a befriended job associate to carpool with me from our area into the metropolis for a game. She was a single mother who had seen some hard times and I would gladly do what I could to support her by offering her a ride when our schedules synched. On the way up the freeway to the games, we would converse about various topics.

When it came to discussing healthcare, she would argue for it and I would do my best to point out how it sounded good, but was going to turn out to be a "boondoggle" for the country. She countered with the standard argument points that supported individuals like her for getting the healthcare she needed due to he inability to pay. We had a good discussion and maintained civility during our exchanges, but I couldn't get it across as well as I'd hoped that it would eventually create a negative situation for the whole country. Most specifically, I tried pointing out how it would be a system which would make everyone equally miserable under it.

Oh, how I wish I'd had this brief video to show her back then! Perhaps then, she'd more clearly understand just why Obamacare was a bad idea.

Now, years later after being implemented, that Obamacare has essentially imploded and is failing miserably across the country, the irony of getting it repealed is very revealing when conservatives have control of all three branches of our federal government, yet, we can't manage to get a true repeal of this mess. The "moderates" of the GOP who are in control - McConnell, McCain, Graham, et al - do NOT want to get rid of Obamacare and are successfully blocking any bills which would actually repeal and replace it. Instead, they are retaining the key provisions of Obamacare while the media is helping the liberals spout outright lies about how many people will "die" if it's repealed and replaced. Why? Ponder the word "lobbyists" for a while and you'll figure it out.

Notice, though, that the standard parlance about this topic uses two words; repeal and replace. Why should we replace such an atrocity with another set of government "fingers" in our healthcare? There's no need for us to have a replacement program if the government will take its hands off a sector of a private sector of 1/5th of our economy and remove the many government restriction to it - like insurance being allowed to cross over state lines - so that competition can actually provide both lower cost and high quality coverage.