Hi, how are you today? Took the time to go for a bike ride this morning. As I traveled on my short trek on my Trek, I had thoughts of what I have been reading lately and hearing on the news. A lot of it has been about national healthcare or what has been labeled by some as Obamacare. It made me think of a personal comparison I have between our healthcare system and the Canadian healthcare system.
Sometime in mid-October of 2008, I managed to injure my left shoulder in an accident while doing some work at home. I was moving some boxes that I had stored in my garage and I stumbled over something. In the process I managed to catch my fall by stretching my left hand out to the wall. My hand and arm grasped the wall, but the momentum kept my body moving forward. The result was very painful as I forced my arm and shoulder back into an unnatural position.
Now, I’m not the type person that runs to the doctor whenever I get a headache or upset stomach. I did some self administered first-aid immediately and returned to work on Monday. Luckily, for me it had happened early on Saturday morning, so I had the week-end to take it easy. I thought, that if I just took it easy I would heal in time, you know - body heal thyself. Needless to say, that didn’t happen. I called for a doctor’s appointment.
When I was examined by my doctor, he decided to send me to a specialist. He thought it might be a torn rotator cuff. After having an MRI scan a few days later, I returned to the specialist and he advised me I could have surgery or do some physical therapy that might help. I decided that therapy was the route to take. I had therapy 2-3 times a week for several weeks then was left on my own to continue the therapy exercises I had been taught. To this day I haven’t had any surgery.
Unknown to me at the time and not for about a month after my injury had occurred , I learned that a Canadian , I’ll call him Bill, working for the same company as myself, had suffered the same injury about the same time as mine. When I asked about him and what he was doing about it, his supervisor told me that he was on the waiting list for an MRI test. He told me that it wasn’t scheduled until mid-January 2009. To make a long story short, the essence of this story is: by the time Bill had his MRI test, I had seen my regular doctor, been to a specialist (an orthopedic), had an MRI test, back to the specialist and started on and was about half way or more through my physical therapy sessions at the doctor’s office.
Recently, I ran into a coworker of Bill’s and asked him about Bill. He told me that Bill finally returned to work about the end of this June or first part of July. Also, that he had hated every minute of the time off. I had expressed to my doctor that I didn’t want any restrictions placed on me and continued working after the injury. I don’t believe that was a choice for Bill.
Now, one could say, but his healthcare was provided by the government and therefore free, mine wasn’t free. Oh really? It’s true, I had to pay a copay each time I went to see a doctor and each time I had a physical therapy session. However, the copay was reasonable and affordable and worth the cost to me. Is his healthcare really free? Wonder what he pays in income taxes compared to me.
Some questions to ask on the debate over national healthcare are:
If something is working why change it?
If something has some things that need to be reformed, then why not address those places for reform instead of scraping the entire healthcare system?
If government takes over the national healthcare system, then you must ask yourself - when has a government run anything ever worked?
Has a government monopoly on anything ever proved to be cost efficient?
If a national healthcare system, Obamacare, is so great, then why has congress, Democrats, voted that they do not have to participate in a national healthcare system?
The biggest question of all - Do you want another federal bureau run by another czar or czarina, unanswerable to “we the people”, making healthcare decisions about you and your family? Or - do you want to have the power with your chosen doctor/doctors concerning decisions about your health?
Do you want to have a loved one turned down by a government bureaucracy for treatment, because they are too old for that treatment, because the government figures it’s not cost efficient?
We must use common sense when making decisions of this magnitude.
I said this prior to the election last year - “if Barack Obama wins the election and becomes our next president, and if the Democrats manage to win both houses of congress, then they will destroy this country as we know it”. Come on now, use some common sense. If you agree with Obama and the Democrats, fine. You need to educate yourself on our founding and what the founding fathers created in this nation of ours. You need to find out the history of the “great depression” that occurred here in the early 20th century and compare it to what is going on now. Another question we need to ask, can you borrow or spend yourself out of debt? Our present government, the Obamacrats, seem to think this is the way. Oh, I forgot, they can print money when needed, forget about inflation and our children and liberty and freedom.
A National healthcare system is not about national healthcare, it’s about more government power in the hands of Obama and the Democrats, but mainly Obama. It’s part of Barack Obama’s plan to change this country to what it is not. The more powerful government becomes the more liberty and freedom “we the people” lose. Once lost, it will be almost impossible to regain. It’s about changing this country into The U.S.S.A. - The United Socialist States of America. Tell me, where has socialism worked anywhere in the world? “…change we can believe in…” Right!?
Some books to consider:
The Five Thousand Year Leap
The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Founding Fathers
Culture of Corruption
Liberty and Tyranny
Catastrophe
Glenn Beck's Commonsense
The Top Ten Myths of American Health
Road to Serfdom
American Progressivism
Liberty Versus the Tyranny of Socialism
Suggestion: Play the Youtube videos at bottom of this post.
tu ne cede malis sed contra audentior ito
Have a great day!
Liberty Tom
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