Tuesday, March 23, 2010

ffff continued

I know my last post had strong language and I'm sure I offended some or appeared ignorant to others.

I believe in the individual before the collective. Because what is a collective if each and every individual in the collective aren't given their agency? You have a pretty lame collective- a lame enough collective that they need a king to govern them...because as an individual they never learned to govern themselves. Collective is never first...the collective is a POWERFUL second...once the individual is allowed to grow and learn from liberty. The whole society flourishes because the individual had his/her personal liberty.

For those reasons I still believe health care is a privilege and not a right to the individual.

I have been denied coverage twice because I had a D&C operation and also for MS. It sucked and seemed a little unfair. But never once did I expect my health bills to paid for by someone else.

Now those who are dealing with things more life threatening- my heart goes out to them. I know many people are dealing with the loom of medical bills...and I know people are sick with an illness and can't find insurance. There are some major problems out there with the financial end of health care...the costs especially...everyone knows that...it is a tricky sad situation.

But the so called "answer to health care problems" the congress voted for on Sunday was NOT the solution. It is an unconstitutional bill, giving too much power to the executive branch- which was never intended and even warned against by the founding fathers.

It's a power grab bill not a health care bill. It is screwy and a complete mess. It was pushed through, it was lobbied, it was driven by special interests...maybe there were some great things passed in the bill...but at what cost are we willing to give it all away? It's the trade that scares me. It's the instant gratification- the quick fixes, the hand out of health care- for the trade of grievous consequences that will happen later on that scare me...

I'm not cold hearted and I don't want people with no health insurance to suffer- oh please. I cry at Liberty Mutual commercials remember? I just don't feel like this health care bill will help in the long run. It will slowly destroy and kill what makes America great. I see the bigger picture. Health care now and then what's next? The outcome...the long haul...the dependency it will cause, the free markets being attacked, big government, the constitution hanging by a thread- scary.

I believe that if God helped direct the writing of the Constitution, He could have also helped with a fair constitutional health care bill that would attack the real problems and not satisfy the want of power. But it almost seems that faith in God's help is out of the question these days- almost a thing of the past...like we have progressed too far to need God in our lives. Most politicians seem to only use God to get votes.

I know there was an executive order made to protect abortions from being funded by tax dollars- we will see how effective that is. Aborting a child is wrong enough, let alone having the government/people pay for it...oh boy watch out...God wouldn't let that go on for too long I'll tell you that.

Like I've said before, our biggest problem in this country is that we are becoming God-less. We are taking Him out of the equation. We are forgetting Him. We keep Him set aside for Sunday's only (if that)...and for that obligated prayer here and there that arises with tradition only. I don't think any civilization will survive long without God, not even capitalism will work if God isn't the moral foundation of men's decisions. Greed, power, dishonesty, deceit, and immorality are found wherever God isn't.

5 comments:

Cami said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Cami said...

I don't think you appeared ignorant at all. Your opinions are very well thought out, and your strong language merely shows your passion, and is not offensive.

Please explain how the bill gives too much power to the executive branch. I'm just curious how you arrived at that.

I have a lot of thoughts, so forgive me if this seems disorganized.

I don't like the health care bill. I don't like that it takes away choices from people, and I certainly don't like all the maneuvering that happened in order for it to pass. But I do believe the current system is broken. Costs are too high, and I believe that there should me more affordable options for health care. Personally, I believe that the only real way for a free-market health care system to flourish is to get rid of employer-provided health care altogether.

(Side note - employer-provided health care came about at the end of WWII, when employers wanted to raise wages to be competitive for all the labor that was returning from war, but didn't have funds to do so. The government began giving tax incentives to businesses who provided it, so it became a way to increase benefits to the employees without such a significant cost to the employer. We are the ONLY nation that has such a system.)

If people had to pay for their own health care premiums, they would shop around and costs would go down. In fact, I would personally really like to see health insurance function more like homeowner's or auto insurance, where people are responsible for the maintenance (i.e. well checks, annual physicals, minor "repairs"), and insurance is reserved for large, unforeseen costs. That's what "insurance" is really supposed to be anyway. There would be premium discounts for getting your annual physical, not smoking, that sort of thing. Of course, that would require people to actually step up and take care of themselves and not rely on health insurance at all.

Did you know that the bill as passed already included language that prohibited federal funds from being used to pay for abortions? The language, however, wasn't strong enough for pro-life democrats to support the bill, which is why the executive order was issued. It was redundant.

I believe that what passed was health insurance reform, but not really health reform. Real health reform would put more choice and power into the hands of the people. My brother-in-law, who is a chiropractor, is particularly angry. This bill takes a lot of choice away from people. They (and a lot of other people) choose not to see traditional physicians except for emergencies. They choose alternative health-care methods. Those methods are not covered under ANY insurance plan that I am aware of. So they will now be forced to buy in to a system that they choose not to use, and do not believe in. And people who would otherwise choose to go to him (or others who prescribe natural remedies) will now be more likely to go to a traditional doctor, because they will have health insurance and won't have to pay for it.

One more thought. I agree with you about the individual versus collective. I believe that individuals must be empowered to choose for themselves. However, I also believe that our society has become unrighteously focused on individual "rights" over collective "good." I'm not disagreeing with your point, but I just wanted to state that there are many (many, many, many) who would destroy this divinely organized society by acquiescing to individual "rights."

Sorry for the long comment. It's more like a post in itself, huh?

Love you, April, and love your FFFF. Jeff and I always have great discussions about them.

April said...

you are right Cami about the individual vs collective...I think when I said that I meant that what the government thinks is best for everyone is not always what is best for the individual. Giving everyone handouts for the collective- the individual suffers or the individual becomes enabled- or their potential is hindered. blah blah...I know you know what I mean...

on my last ffff someone posted the whole King Benjamin sermon...basically saying that my belief that the rich shouldn't distribute their wealth by taxation/mandated to the poor for things like healthcare was un christ-like of me- not giving my substance to the needy...

I didn't agree...plus I will probably never be in the tax bracket where I will be taxed for such things. :)

Kathleen Sebelius is the Secretary of Health and Human services...who is on the President's cabinet- who is an appointed officer of the executive branch- she is the main person who will be head of the new beaurocracy that will be in charge of the newly passed healthcare bill.

anyway- thanks for your thoughts...it will be interesting to see how this all plays out...who really knows????

Anonymous said...

hey, just stumbled upon your post. You are misinformed and gullible. Its unconstitutional for the government to say all Americans must have health care, seriously. I'm sure you have car insurance, of course, because it is against the law if you don't. So in America, it is better to be a car than a human being? Not wanting something for the good of the people is unamerican. People of other countries laugh and look down on us because we depend on such a a primitive and useless system. We are currently going into debt paying for a war in another part of the world, but you don't support something that could benefit people living in America?
Think things through before you speak..don't just agree with what you hear on television just for the sake of disagreeing. A step forward is a step in the right direction.

Jeff said...

Seriously - if you believe something, at least put your name next to it. Otherwise, you just appear to be attempting to tear other people down instead of standing up for what you believe.

The thing that frustrated me about this whole process is that I almost never heard anyone debate what might or might not be good for the nation. Instead, it was just what costs less for that individual person. I enjoyed your post because even though I don't agree with everything you said, you at least are considering the greater ramifications of this bill instead of just complaining about how it might adversely affect you. Interesting read, so thank you.