UHC At What Price?

One of the hallmarks of good religion and a great nation is how they treat the poor and respect the elderly. See the Fall of the Roman Empire for historical data.

Hard times come to us all. If you haven’t had any trials in your life, then I have never met you. It is absolutely consistent that everyone I know has had trouble and for most of us ‘trials, difficulties and tough times’ are often our traveling companions. Allow me to be perfectly clear, I am not negative nor am I down on ‘life’. “I like life, it is something to do,” said Ronnie Shakes. “Life is something everyone should try at least once”, said Henry Tillman. I love living. But 2009 has been difficult and to be honest, 2010 so far hasn’t been much better. But I remain hopeful….

One of the difficulties of 2009 has been maintaining health insurance for me and my two teenagers. Changes in jobs, geopgraphy, family unheavals, more job changes, more insurance changes…ugh. It has been exasperating. On several of those tiring days I thought, “Wow, maybe president Obama will just pass this whole Universal Healthcare thing and I will be taken care of and I won’t have to be worried about this anymore.”

After pulling myself off the slippery slope of self pity, I once again realized my values and continued to fight for myself and my sons. But why does it have to be so hard for the out of work who want to work and has always worked? The numbers very but for the sake of argument, let’s agree there are really 27 million of us out of work and need healthcare. Then lets do it, lets take care of us, of me until we can take care of ourselves.

We are smart people, we are caring people but let not throw the baby out with the bathwater and use the poor and the unemployed as a means to an ideological end. This is America. I have lived in countries with UHC and it is a train wreck. We are smart but we are not so smart we are going to do UHC better than Sweden, England or the rest of Europe. Please!

I needed help. I continue to need some help. But at what price? “No thank you Mr. President. I would rather continue to struggle rather than give up and give in to an Americanized Style ‘Nanny State’.

Let’s help the poor, lets retrain the unemployed, let’s give them incentive to get their own insurance and let’s drop the socialism in sheep’s clothing.