Health Insurance Subsidies

Today's blog-fodder comes from President Obama in regards to how to pay for health insurance reform. This quote comes from foxnews at:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/08/14/obamas-health-care-quest-heads-west/

"Obama agreed that he couldn't insure the estimated 46 million uninsured Americans for free. But he told the man there are steps that he would take to avoid raising taxes on 95 percent of Americans, as he has pledged. One option, he said, is to eliminate subsidies to insurance companies and instead shift the subsidies to low-income Americans to help them buy insurance."

So here's my thought: if the insurance companies are already receiving subsidies, aren't those subsidies helping our insurance costs to stay lower? And, if not, why is the government subsidizing in the first place?

With all this in mind, if the subsidies are indeed helping to keep our costs lower, then it would follow that removing those subsidies would cause my rates to go up and make it harder for the Health Insurance industry to compete with whatever government options become available. And if the industry isn't allowed to compete, then we're going to see the government options grow more and more over the years until they've pushed private healthcare out of the market.

The president is not just using fuzzy math, he's using fuzzy logic.

The smart insurance company right now is Aetna, held out by Obama as an example to follow. Here's another quote from that same article above: "The president says his intent was not to target all big companies. He said some, like Aetna, are working with the administration on overhaul. But he said others are spending money to oppose his efforts to remake the system."

Aetna is positioning themself to be the channel for government health insurance. They'll get the biggest piece of the pie. I guess I should be investing in Aetna. Unfortunately I believe in fighting against this new system and so I find myself allied with the other insurance company, including my own.

I still believe in reforming - not remaking. The system needs fixing, maybe even overhauling, but throwing the system out, which is what we're doing, is going to create a fully government-run insurance industry eventually. It may not begin that way but it will end up that way and future presidents will be forced into placing the whole bill onto the American taxpayer. We will see our taxes reach that 50% to 60% level (at least) just to pay for it. And when that happens our transformation to socialism will be nearly complete. With the governement reaching that deep into the pockets of the average American, what will we be left with to pay for everything else in life? How many more private industries will fall to the government to subsidize and takeover?

We are on the slippery slope away from democracy and freedom. Private Health Insurance is a freedom (not a basic right - see earlier blogs) we now have and we are in the process of handing that freedom over to the government. And I thought the presidents influence on the auto industry was a gross abuse of presidential and governmental power. As the government takes much more control over the insurance industry, it will begin calling more of the shots.

My primary concern is giving away the freedoms we have. The more we allow those freedoms to slip away, the sooner we're going to see the loss of our basic human rights. This health care debate is about more than health care and this is where the president and congress are missing the point. This debate is about giving away (taking away, losing) the very foundations of our country. The government should not be running anything that could be handled in the private sector. Government is a necessary evil. It can be a good presence in the lives of it's ciitizens if stays where government should stay.

Wake up, America! We're giving away the rights and freedoms of our children on a much greater scale than anything we will experience ourselves.