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February 13, 2006
Without Health Savings Accounts, we're Dead Meat
Ever since the State of the Union Address, there has been a lot of negative press on Health Savings Accounts. It seems there is a full on attack on Health Savings Accounts accusing them of being for the rich, just another tax shelter, a cancer to the healthcare system. Nothing could be further from the truth. These are the same people who think your government should be in control of your healthcare. They want to give you free healthcare, but at a cost. What's the cost? They tell you when, where, and how you will get treatment. They (the government) are in total control of YOUR body.
So what would this system be like? All we have to do is look to the North to find out. Canada already has this type of healthcare system in place. The reality of health care under Canada's socialized medical system: Canadians wait ... and wait ... and wait. ... And sometimes they die while waiting for free government health care.
To see a short film on Canada's healthcare system, I urge you to visit: http://www.onthefencefilms.com/video/deadmeat/
The film is called Dead Meat. It's a 25 minute short film which shows the reality of health care under Canada's socialized medical system.
The U.S. health care system is in need of reform, however, the solution proposed by those opposed to Health Savings Accounts is a total government takeover of medicine inspired by the Canadian government-run health care system. Since most Americans know very little about medicine as practiced by our northern neighbor, this film is a warning to look before you leap. Many Americans would be surprised to know that Canada (like Cuba and North Korea) makes it illegal to purchase private healthcare for yourself or a loved one - and that the adoption of a so-called "single-payer" system would represent a major restriction of the freedoms that Americans now enjoy.
Canada does spends less on health care than the U.S. However, costs are controlled by arbitrarily limiting the number and availability of doctors, specialists, operating room hours, high-tech equipment, diagnostic tests, drugs and expensive treatments. In short, the government limits the supply of health care in order to hold costs down. The result: shortages, rationing, and long wait lists.
Many Canadians who have never been really sick are supportive of their system. In fact, the system caters to the healthy majority with free primary care doctor appointments, flu shots, etc. while depriving the truly sick - often the elderly - of timely medical treatment that is often more expensive. Political expediency dictates that health care dollars are spent where the votes are: the healthy majority - while across Canada, hundreds of thousands of sick and disabled people quietly languish in pain in their homes on long waiting lists for treatment while being told that to question the moral supremacy of their health care system is somehow "Un-Canadian".
Is this really the type of system we want restricting us here in the United States? Not me! I believe Health Savings Accounts are the answer. Put people in charge of their own health and healthcare dollars. Let the people decide what's best for them... not our government.
Posted by Wiley Long at February 13, 2006 09:18 AM