Health Care Reform?

Obama signed the healthcare reform bill into law today. Before it even happened, the state attorney general from Virginia threatened to sue if it was signed into law. After Obama signed the bill, thirteen other states sued the U.S. departments of Health and Human Services, Treasury and Labor. The lawsuits focus on the "individual mandate" that requires most people to have insurance or pay a penalty.

I just don't understand this thinking. Why is it a bad thing to have every citizen in a country with health insurance. This takes the burden off of tax payers. As our system is currently designed, tax payers support the people who do not have health insurance that go to the emergency room when they have a cold. That is a burden in my opintion. When you look at the big picture, I believe that while health care reform is a radical concept for us to accept it will save us all money in the long run.

I have an open mind when it comes to Obama's health care bill. I can see that it can really accomplish some great things. I can also see that it could fail miserably and cost us all a lot of money. Every radical plan has both of those potential outcomes and that really depend on how they are managed. If the right person, or group, is in charge of the reform it will be the best thing that has ever happened to this country.

While I am on the reform topic, I would be remiss if I did not bring up law enforcement. Criminals currently get better health care while in prison than the correctional officers who keep them in line get. They have newer facilities and get guaranteed medication every day without fail. Nobody outside of prison is guaranteed to be able to afford their medications every time they need them. My family members have been prescribed medications before that our insurance plan did not cover and we did without them. Prisoners never have to make this sacrifice. In addition, they are transported to hospitals by helicopter or ambulance whenever the on-call doctor can not come in to the prison to treat them. All of this is at the taxpayers expense.

If we are willing to spend this much on healthcare for people who have broken the law, why are we not willing as a society to provide basic health care insurance to law abiding, productive citizens? I just don't understand how we think as a society. If we can afford to do it, why not? We pay some of the lowest taxes in the world and are still able to have a government that functions well most of the time and is able to provide necessary services to our people. Let's keep doing that!