State of the Disunion

Greetings,

I hope you all have been following the circus. This week, our Commander in Chief, President Obama, addressed the nation. If you didn't watch, or listen, he basically said he would use executive power to get things done if Congress doesn't play ball.

Hey, that's great, right Democrats? Well at least for the next three years. Then, when we elect a different President in 2016, all those executive orders could possible be thrown out by President Obama's successor. I wonder how much that will cost! Who's going to pay for it? Oh wait, that's right, you and I will.

So I could go on and on with a rant about how asinine and idiotic our government is right now, including the Congress. But I named this Blog Socratic Solutions because I hoped to come up with feasible solutions and not just use this as a venue for negativity. The main point of contention here is the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare.

Just like with every other ludicrous piece of legislation that has been passed, uninformed/ignorant citizens were dooped into believing one or more of several claims:

1. Health care is a human right.
2. If everyone has health insurance, then health care will be cheaper.
3. The federal government has the ability to manage a nationalized health insurance/ health care program.

Well, stupid us! Really? We have been in the business of war since 1776, and we still can't get that right. Why would we be able to break into the medical industry? And, how the heck is health care a human right? Last time I checked, health care is provided by doctors. So in order to provide this "human right" to people, that means that a doctor would possibly have to be coerced against his or her will to provide a service to another human being. Lastly, insurance is the problem, not the solution. Doctors know that they will get paid because of insurance companies. Before insurance, people went to the doctor directly and paid a modest fee. With insurance, all the healthy people who rarely go to the doctor pay a premium every month even though they are not utilizing those services. This allows the doctor to charge all the sick people astronomical rates via their insurance companies who collect monthly premiums from thousands and thousands of people, both healthy and sick.

So here it is, two possible solutions:

1. From the Liberal Lefty camp... wait for it... Price controls on doctor's services! The left loves price controls. I don't think they work, but it would probably be a better option than Obamacare.

2. Leaning slightly to the right... except for the fact that insurance companies would hate this... ban health insurance. The patient should be a direct consumer of doctor's services. This would have several positive benefits. People would be more inclined to be in charge of their own health and informed about medical issues. Furthermore, prices for treatment would go down automatically using a free market approach. If only sick people were paying into the market, then it would lower demand, therefore lowering costs.

Now, realize that no system is perfect. Sure, some people would suffer, just like they do now and will continue to under Obamacare. But is sacrificing the liberty of the many worth insuring those who are unable to insure themselves or pay for their own health care? I don't think so. Plus, the great thing is that charitable organizations would still be free to provide medical services at no cost to the patient. I can't speak for anyone else, but the more money the government allows me to keep, the more I would donate to charities.

Okay, so that's my spiel on the "crucial issue of our time."

Until next time, enjoy your weekend, whether it's watching the Superbowl or fighting AIDS and Cancer.

Semper Fi,
Chris Bentley