We don’t have a health care reform bill. We have about a hundred of them. And when THE bill finally gets to the president’s desk, it won’t look like any of them. So, pardon me if I don’t take anyone’s word for what’s in the bill. Least of all, the president’s word. He will say anything to get “health care reform” passed. The reason that’s in quotes is that from the president’s perspective, it truly doesn’t matter what’s in the bill or what’s not in the bill. And in this context “reform” takes its literal meaning – to make a thing different – rather than it’s implied meaning – to fix something. It doesn’t matter because a bill is not an end, it is a means.
I used to spend a lot of time reading bills. I’d follow references in the bills to already existing legislation, sometimes even legislation from other states and countries. Then I’d write a synopsis of what I’d read. How stupid was that? Nowadays I rarely read bills. In fact, I urge others not to read them. And I don’t even listen to people who purport to tell me what’s in bills. Why? Because it’s all irrelevant.
A bill is the journey, not the destination. And the purported destination in this case – a piece of health care reform legislation – is but a way station in a process meant to do one thing and one thing only: further break the health care system in this country. And I say that even though I don’t have a dog in this hunt. I dislike the current corporatist-government health care system, as I will dislike the future government-corporatist health care system. The only difference in the near term will be who has the upper hand, government or health insurance corporations. But in the long term, no matter what happens in the short term, we will have something very different. Government will take over all of health care. It is inevitable.
The function of a bill is to get you to a law. And the function of a law is to break the object of the bill, which gives you a reason to amend the law, over and over and over. And since nothing government does is ever final, the work of breaking stuff is never done. And that may be the most realistic and depressing civics lesson you’ll ever have.
So worry not what is in the bill. Don’t listen to the talking heads scoring the myths and truths being circulated about the bill. Don’t listen to those who would scare you about what’s in the bill. Don’t listen to those who purport to tell you the wonderful benefits you’ll receive from the bill. Don’t waste your time. Just know that you’re not likely to benefit, everything you’re scared about will come true (or pretty close), and everyone who was trying to sell you on or scare you about the bill will not be affected at all. They will always have better insurance than you, better doctors than you, and on the whole a more carefree and satisfying life than you, right up until the day they land in Hell and have to justify themselves. Oops.
Government has to break stuff to survive. If it didn’t, how could a motley crew like our governing class convince you they are necessary? So, further break health care they will. And when they’ve broken it way beyond the point of no return, we will have a government-run single payer system, just as surely as night follows day, swans return to Capistrano and the Pope wears a funny hat. And just as our more Socialist European and Canadian cousins before us, we will be forced to buy add-on insurance policies to cover the shortcomings of our government-care program because, and I cannot stress this enough, COLLECTIVISM DOES NOT WORK.
The idea of a free market in health care was either bred out of us or educated out of us long ago. In fact, those of us old enough to remember the days when we had pretty close to a free market in health care will all be dead in fifty years. When we’ve had a full generation of government-run health care, there will be no memory of freedom in health care or anything else. That which took millennia to recognize as the highest order of human interaction will have taken only a few generations to eradicate. But hey, what’s a millennium of human progress, when balanced against a doctor bill for the sniffles?
So, if it’s not in the bill, just wait a while. If it’s currently in the bill, just wait a while. Because the final form of a bill is nothing like the early drafts. And the law that results will look like nothing you’ve seen yet, since it will start out as the codification of an unworkable concept, then become an even more overstuffed pinata of bad ideas as time marches on. And that’s the point of legislation. Anyone who tells you what is or isn’t in the bill is either wrong, or lying, or more likely both.
And how will the health care overhaul be paid for? Well, that’s a topic for another day. But I’ll give you a preview. Inflation. Until next time.
