Can you agree with Obama on some things, yet still think the President is over-reaching?

Sure you can. Here is an interesting example from Maynard at TammyBruce.com:

Obama Agrees with Me on Health Care…and That’s Frightening!
Maynard explains why being right isn’t the point

Maynard starts out talking about difficult moral issues with health care, including people he knows and even Obama with his own grandmother. It would be easy to agree with Obama on some things. But the president's opinions on these often deeply personal issues have the power of law if they become policy in government run healthcare. Is that the government's, or the President's, proper place in our lives?

[...] Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’m cold and inhuman. But my words do not carry the weight of authority, other than with respect to my own body. I have nothing to offer but thoughts; take them or leave them.

The terrifying thing about what our government is trying to do is that, if Obama got his way (his stated goal is a single-payer system with the phasing out of private insurance), his thoughts would have the force of law. These are deeply personal questions being contemplated; questions to be pondered with family and spiritual advisors and God. The problem with Mr. Obama isn’t that he’s necessarily wrong; it’s that he has no damn business in this arena. He’s not just pontificating here; he’s forming public policy. The man has no sense of boundaries.

[...]

I’m not rich, not a member of a “protected class”, not associated with any group that has political “pull”. Certainly not an ally of the people who are crafting these rules, and thus not to be looked upon with favor in the new day. I’m confounded by bureaucracies and intimidated by crowds. In the current system, I’ve got a fighting chance. But the new order will put me last on line.

Nancy Pelosi says I carry a swastika; Harry Reid today described me as “evil-monger”. That’s the word, not from a few fanatics, but from the top party leadership. And now you begin to see why I’m afraid. Tell me honestly: If you controlled the distribution of health care, would you give as much care to the “evil” people as the “good” ones? I certainly wouldn’t! I’d kill the evil people! Am I displaying a horrible character flaw in admitting this? Before you call me names, again remember that I have no power, nor do I aspire to power. I control no resources, save for limited control over my own environment and my own body. That’s all I have, and it’s all I want.

Whether you stand with the left or with the right, you can co-exist with me. We can live with each other, not because I’m right or wrong, but because I’m powerless. It doesn’t matter what I say or do, because it doesn’t affect your life. I may think you’re a fool, but this doesn’t mean I have to be your enemy.

By bullying his way into our lives and declaring dissenters to be enemies, Obama has divided America. It’s ironic that, having condemned the incursion into Iraq as a “war of choice”, Mr. Obama has decided to launch his own war of choice against America and against me. I could have lived with Obama, but Obama cannot live with me. And so we go to war with each other, and that’s a damn shame. [...]

It's the lack of tolerance for dissent by this administration that I find especially disturbing. There were signs that it would be this way, even before the election. Now it's coming to pass. It needs to be resisted and opposed. Ideally that would be done respectfully, but respect has to be a two way street. From Neal Boortz:

NOT ONE CALL TO MAKE THE CASE

In spite of the name-calling from the looters and moochers, I have no desire to drown out the voices in support of government-run healthcare. I truly believe that those who support what I see as a Democrat effort to secure control of vast numbers of Americans by controlling their health care need to be heard. Our ability to fight this seizure of power is only enhanced by listening respectfully to what the proponents have to say and formulating a logical and reasoned response. In the talk radio station where I began my career as a big mouth there was a sign: "You have not converted a man because you have silenced him." You can see the poster here. The words are from an English member of parliament named John Viscount Morley. It is absolutely the best possible poster you could find to hang in a talk radio studio. Wish I could find one.

Anyway ... there most certainly have been instances where opponents of ObamaCare have shouted down proponents in town hall meetings. This needs to stop. Our recent history has been one of liberal crowds shouting down conservative speakers on college campuses. Somehow the media and Democrat politicians never seemed to notice. Ditto for the crowds of protesters who would continually shout down President Bush and administration officials over the Iraq war. Again, the media didn't seem to notice. Now, however, things are different. We have a president who was essentially installed in office by a fawning media. He is there creation, and their creation must be protected if for no reason other than to assuage their shame at what was an obvious mistake. OK ... let them play their game. We're on to them ... we know the score. What is good for liberals protesting evil conservatives is not necessarily good for conservatives protesting the actions of well-meaning, compassionate, genuine, loving liberals. [...]

I agree with Neal, both sides need to listen, despite media bias. Yet people sometimes have to shout when their questions are ignored, because sometimes it's the only way to get the attention of the powerful people who are ignoring you. Respect needs to be a two way street, or it will be unbalanced and not work for us. It's a fine line to draw sometimes.
     

Our Congress on Government Run Healthcare: "Do as I say, not as I do."

Congress want's to exempt itself from the government health plan that they are trying to force on the rest of us:

Rep. Tsongas tries to explain why Congress is exempt from Obamacare. Fails.

It's worth reading the whole thing, but this was especially noteworthy:

[...] More than 150,000 have signed GOP Rep. John Fleming’s petition telling Congress to live under the health care mandates it forces on the rest of the country. [...]

It's an outrage that we should even have to be put in the position of doing this.


     

A National Health Care Preview, and a lesson from Natasha Richardson's experience

I had posted about Mitt Romney's health care plan for Massachusetts years ago. Some folks warned me that it was doomed to fail, and it seems that is the case. It seems that these sorts of things have been tried before, and the results are always the same:

National Health Preview: The Massachusetts debacle, coming soon to your neighborhood.

Praise Mitt Romney. Three years ago, the former Massachusetts Governor had the inadvertent good sense to create the "universal" health-care program that the White House and Congress now want to inflict on the entire country. It is proving to be instructive, as Mr. Romney's foresight previews what President Obama, Max Baucus, Ted Kennedy and Pete Stark are cooking up for everyone else.

In Massachusetts's latest crisis, Governor Deval Patrick and his Democratic colleagues are starting to move down the path that government health plans always follow when spending collides with reality -- i.e., price controls. As costs continue to rise, the inevitable results are coverage restrictions and waiting periods. It was only a matter of time.

They're trying to manage the huge costs of the subsidized middle-class insurance program that is gradually swallowing the state budget. The program provides low- or no-cost coverage to about 165,000 residents, or three-fifths of the newly insured, and is budgeted at $880 million for 2010, a 7.3% single-year increase that is likely to be optimistic. The state's overall costs on health programs have increased by 42% (!) since 2006. [...]

The article goes on to look at the usual ways governments use to attempt to fix these problems... and the flaws inherent in them. The article also claims that if this plan is applied on a national level, the results will be even worse, because MA had a far smaller percentage of its population uninsured than the national average.

Yet we are now about to adopt this plan on a National level?

Our current health care system would work better if some government controls were removed, such as the silly laws that forbid people from buying health care across state lines. Such as not taxing health insurance that people (like me!) buy for themselves.

If government is to have a roll in improving our health care system, they need to allow us more choices, not less. They need to stop over-burdening the present system with needless restrictions, and let competition lower prices. And our politicians definitely need to learn from the many mistakes of others who have gone before them. Many of them don't seem to have a good record of learning from mistakes. Hopefully the voters will.


There is a great deal to be learned from other National Health Care systems. Natasha Richardson's experience in Canada is a good example:

CANADACARE MAY HAVE KILLED NATASHA

COULD actress Natasha Richardson's tragic death have been prevented if her skiing accident had occurred in America rather than Canada?

Canadian health care de-emphasizes widespread dissemination of technology like CT scanners and quick access to specialists like neurosurgeons. While all the facts of Richardson's medical care haven't been released, enough is known to pose questions with profound implications.

Richardson died of an epidural hematoma -- a bleeding artery between the skull and brain that compresses and ultimately causes fatal brain damage via pressure buildup. With prompt diagnosis by CT scan, and surgery to drain the blood, most patients survive.

Could Richardson have received this care? Where it happened in Canada, no. In many US resorts, yes. [...]

Read the whole thing. It's not hard to see why CanadaCare failed her. In fact, look at this example of a little girl in the US, with a very similar injury to Natasha's:

Natasha's lesson helps save Ohio girl

[...] The McCrackens took Morgan to the emergency room at LakeWest Hospital in neighboring Willoughby, where doctors ordered a CT scan and immediately put Morgan on a helicopter to Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland, with her father by her side.

"I knew it was bad when she had to get there by helicopter in six minutes, instead of the 30 minutes it would have taken to get to Cleveland in an ambulance," McCracken said.

When the helicopter arrived at Rainbow, the McCrackens were greeted by Dr. Alan Cohen, the hospital's chief of pediatric neurosurgery. He whisked Morgan into the operating room, pausing for a moment to tell McCracken that his daughter had the same injury as Richardson: an epidural hematoma.

McCracken remembers standing in the emergency room, feeling like the life had just been sucked out of him. "My heart sank," he says. "It just sank."

Unlike Richardson's, Morgan's story has a happy ending. [...]

It was a happy ending for Morgan because of quick action and ample availability of treatment and equipment. The very thing's that did not work out in Natasha's favor under CanadaCare.

There IS a reason why so many Canadian's come to the USA for medical treatment. They don't want to die waiting for treatment in Canada.

I'm sure that there are plenty of things we can do to improve our health care system in the United States, to make it more affordable and accessible. But policies that have a proven track record of failure should not be among them. We have to create better ways.


Related Links:

Health Insurance and Medical Expenses

Lowering Health Care Costs for Everyone

PRIVATE HEALTHCARE ... SAY IT AIN'T SO!

There's No Place Like Home: What I learned from my wife's month in the British medical system.