Thursday, June 28, 2012

Obamacare.......O What a Mistake !

This is the current Supreme Court.   Perhaps a lifetime appointment is too long. We'll have to look into that too. They apparently want Obama's long hands in our surgeries, our gyn visits, and everything else, when he can't show relative competence in anything that prior presidents have done.  What's next ? Shall we let teachers practice medicine because they want to, and they are in close physical proximity to our children and it's therefore cheaper and expedient ?
    

       My mother was a British gentlewoman.  When passing the point of being highly peeved, she would never have uttered the words, "I am pissed !".   Instead, when she reached the point of maximum peeve, and beyond simply cross, she would say that she "was pipped".   I did not realize, until I watched the Jeeves and Wooster series, that others used the phrase.   Today, I am beyond highly pipped,  I am an utterly disgusted American.   Here in what used to be the "land of the free and the home of the brave", it is looking a little more like the "land of no one free, and led by the depraved."   Today, the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare, saying that it is Constitutional.   How could it possibly be Constitutional to require the purchase of health insurance, or anything else ?    If they can do this, and simply consider it a tax, then what is next ?   Perhaps next week they can require us to buy an American car in order to stimulate our economy. The week after, they can require us to buy fat free mayonnaise.  Let's pass a law in order to make sure we all get quarterly colonoscopies !
            In the US, we really do have excellent health care.  Most of us have health insurance through jobs. Those of us who do not can buy policies which meet disastrous need. Those who are in a difficult situation, or between jobs, can go to a free clinic.  I work in a free clinic, and we render excellent care free of charge. Physicians and nurses render care on a rotating basis at the clinic. The materials are donated to us through the state, and drug companies donate the full supply of expensive drugs to our patients once our office staff proves via paystubs, that the patient cannot pay for these at this time. Long term poor or those who are very sick and without insurance, receive something called Medicaid, and they too receive care.
           There are access problems in the US.  People in some parts of Colorado can't see an endocrinologist as quickly as they might wish to.  People who want to see a free dentist might not have one in their state. There are the same access issues to specialty care in England, France, Germany, and in Canada when I was last there. There is no perfect system.  The US could do things which improve its access to health care for its citizens. It could better educate them in terms of how one obtains better health care. The strength of the US system has always been that if you go to your local hospital, and a physician diagnoses you with a variant of leukemia, and tells you that you should likely prepare to die, that you and your family can seek a physician and a specialty clinic somewhere else........like the University of Texas, or the University of Virginia, or Johns-Hopkins or the Mayo Clinic, or any number of world class medical centers.  You endure a financial screening and you either receive your care through your insurance, or you are entered into an experimental program of treatment.  I cannot tell you how many patients of mine are alive today because we have an innovative system, and stay on the cutting edge of research. The difference between health care here, and in other nations is that health care for routine issues is likely the same. However, health care for unusual or grave situations, is likely to be rendered much more quickly here, and the patient will have the choices laid out for him and he and his family will choose them.
         I therefore completely oppose Obamacare. I just got off the phone with the office of Eric Cantor, whose office relates that a repeal of Obamacare is under careful consideration.  Adding a trillion dollar debt to a dying economy in order to take the choices regarding health care away from Americans, is not in the best interests of the US.
         There is a wonderful line in the second season of the series "Jericho".  Paraphrased it says, "This is not a stereo manual, it's the Constitution !"  Barack Hussein Obama might be a wonderful president for Kenya, Syria, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia or Indonesia, but here in the US, we like to make our own decisions about health care.  We don't need our government doing this for us.
           Remind me to take a second look at Belize.


This is Chief Justice John Roberts whose decision cast the deciding vote to uphold Obamacare.  He seems to think we can be taxed in any way the government likes. He also does not believe in state's rights.  Virginia has long since passed a law which prohibits anyone from requiring us to buy health insurance.  This might not be the kind of person who should be on the Supreme Court for a lifetime.   Let's speak to our Congressmen about term limits for the Supreme Court. How could this be done ?
  




It is clear that if you have never been political before, that it's now time to let your Congressman and Representatives what you feel.  We are indeed "Running Out of Time"

     

2 comments:

Matt said...

I think it will only get worse before it gets better. The Supreme Court was the last line of defense against tyranny in this country and now it has fallen.

JaneofVirginia said...

I am also very disillusioned, but please remember that there were four dissenting opinions. Four Justices did not approve Obamacare. My hope is that this can still be overturned. I am not very confident, but I am still hopeful.