[Kobi]

Thank you for key for breaking the issue down to something we all need to keep in mind.

Being notoriously behind the times, I was watching Michael Moore's "Capitalism" today. As he probed, albeit drama and all, into the financial sector and its pervasive effect on the government which ends up dumping on the little guy, I was feeling a similar scenario in relation to health care.

The financial sector wanted us to believe that their mortgages and deriatives and other instruments of control over our lives and freedom were beneficial to us. The federal treasury helped the cause and led the bailout when it was on the brink of supposedly collapsing by dipping into the pockets of the taxpayer not once but twice throwing us into unprecidented debt.

Now, we have a President who wants change in health care - a laudable and welcomed idea. And, he turns to financial folks and the health care lobby to devise something plausible for all. Somehow, to me, asking those who created the problem to solve the problem makes me automatically suspect of the process and the final result.

I love the idea of every American having health insurance or the right to be sick without the fear of bankruptcy. But I fear we will be facing the same game playing and slight of hand tactics as we did in the financial industry.
The rich and well to do seldom willingly give up potential profits without some tricks up their sleeves.

Specifically, I expect we will find, if it is not already occuring, our insurance companies taking out life insurance policies on us. They already know what our state of health is. It is a suckers bet to sure up the bottom line with hefty death payments.

The misstatement of costs associated with this program is misleading as well. It is common knowledge that what Congress passed is very similar to what is already in use here in Mass. And the folks in Mass will tell you they had no idea of how quickly the subsidized program would grow. They would tell you that thousands of small businesses dropped their employee coverage. Why? They could have paid $6-10,000 per employee for insurance or a $500.00 per employee penalty. Seems like a no brainer to me and to them. So suddenly the program almost doubled overnight.

With insurance comes the freedom to seek care and seek care is what people did. The cash register was open 24/7.

The costs were growing so fast, and the tax base was shrinking thanks to the economy, so we had a $1.00 a pack increase on smokes, increased the sales tax, increased fees for unrelated programs, upped the premium costs to participants to almost double (still a bargain tho), increased co-pays etc.

Common sense says you can't enact something like this without some financial fallout. And the projections of costs by government pundits looking to ease the pain by manipulating the figures isn't the least bit reliable. It's a vicious cycle....income has been stagnant for decades, costs are skyrocketing, disposable income is an outdated concept. Getting something for nothing aint real folks.

I also fear with the proliferation of gene based illnesses and diseases, that if we can't find a way to fix them, we may seek other, less palatable ways to eradicate the costs associated with them.

And, most of all, the social worker in me, fears that we, as a society, have become very complacent, very willing to look the other way as long as our standard of living remains untouched. We, are willing to remain silent when our officials circumvent the Constitution, when they ignore the laws and checks and balances that were built into the system, and when they deliberately refuse to act when the handwriting is on the wall. And, I worry that we will see more people getting angry with one another rather than putting their anger where it belongs.

I love health care for all. But, I am hesitate to believe all the rhetoric that surrounds what was passed. Time tends to prove one way or another what truth is. Personally, if they had a devirative on the bill and the costs it will impose on society, I'd sink every dollar I have right now into it..... cuz I'm willing to bet there will be a short lived peak before the reality plunges use deeper into debt. And the insiders will make a bizillion bucks both at the peak and during the bailout....just like they did in finance.

Now, I must go temper my rising blood pressure and quell the acid building in my stomach.