First the constitutional argument:
I don't know of any law authorizing the government to be involved in healthcare therefore it is not legal.
Not that anyone cares about that.
Second....
Why is the government involved in healthcare and when did it happen? Well it was before I was born so I don't remember.
The first tangle that I know of is related to WWII and the income tax. Companies like to pay employees benefits as a bonus to salaries. Companies used to offer retirement plans and pensions before the invention of 401k. But later the income tax was expanded and then included paycheck withdrawal "to support the war effort" against powermongers. The withdrawal plan was a huge success with few people complaining about it so it continued after the war. As with most emergency legislation passed due to a crisis it didn't go away once things returned to normal. The problem was that politicians wanted to tax benefits but how do you count them? Retirements benefits aren't taxed until you receive them and medical insurance wasn't paid to the employee but to another entity so that it was not considered taxable income. No income - no tax. So that's how this mess started.
I don't know how well the system used to work. There isn't much history written on the topic. Medical care was a relationship between people and their doctors with medical benefits paid for by some employers. When government got involved with income taxes then HMOs were created and used as a loophole to avoid the tax. The benefit is still paid but to an HMO rather than directly to the employee. Slowly, for several decades, the relationship of medical care changed as more and more government jobs were created. As an employer the government always pays medical benefits.
I don't know why that is. I think it is absurd that government employees voted themselves retirements plans and pensions. First it was pensions for soldiers and later for Presidents. I read that people were embarrassed about their past presidents living in poverty. Didn't look good for the country. Later came pensions for congressman and over time an avalanche as everyone else joined. Our Gilbert town councilman recently added themselves to the state plan with retroactive benefits.
I disagree with the whole notion of government pensions. It encourages people to stay in office. Never a good idea. Serve and then get a real job. There is no right to a retirement. Leisure is earned, not guaranteed by others taxes. But back to medical care.....
Government has become more involved in medical care and it hasn't helped anyone. As with most functions the government didn't make improvements but rather took over the duties and functions of other organizations and proceeded to perform worse than they.
Today we have a so called crisis. I don't see it. Everyone I know gets the care they need. Haven't seen a single case of a child limping around because their broken leg was never set. The reports are always about a lack of medical insurance rather than about medical care. But that is really an argument about how we may for medical care, not whether we can get it or what it should cost. If the real argument is about methods of payment then the solution is easy. We must end the relationship between government and medical care. That will help to end the perception that healthcare is a right. And end the notion that this perceived right is guaranteed by the government.
People do not live forever and have no right to medical care. Medical care at the expense of others is theft, not charity. That isn't what life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness means.
The simplest way to end the healthcare crisis if there is one is to get government out of it. To do that requires a change to tax policy to end the practice of withholding and income tax. This will return healthcare to its proper position of doctor and patient with some companies paying perks if they wish. People can take the money and pay for a doctor. Or join an HMO if they wish to get group buying power.
Problem solved.
No comments:
Post a Comment