Re: Whocare

[lewinski@icanon.com (Joe Lewinski)]

Kevin wrote:

>I loved reading what Pete had to write on Healthcare.
>I feel the same way, and only wish someone had a plan that would work.
>It should really be a birthright to be healthy.

Kevin:

Pete is being much too idealistic:
I disagree when people are self-destructive to their bodies.  Sure there
is a lot of waste in the insurance system (I worked for an HMO for 4 years),
but mandating behavior from smart and talented people (care-givers)
that have expensive educations is not an incentive. 

There are basically 4 ways of incenting
production: 1. Charity and the other feel-good voluntary efforts where the
reward is emotionally enriching (often short-lived), 2. Mandates, and other
forms of slavery,  3.  Broad-based taxes (medicare, social security) on
everyone (including the producers) and the redistribution of these funds 
to pay the producers,  and 4.  The free market economy where people pay
for what they want and need.

The only true birthright is freedom.   Equal opportunity, not equal outcome.
Mandating that employers pay for insurance, or duduct and submit wage taxes
is simply wrong.  What Medicare, Social Security, and the IRS has done, has
fooled us all.  They have created the faceless collection and redistribution
of wealth without accountability.  

In a society such as ours, a combination of numbers 4 and 1 are the best
solution.  It keeps everyone honest, because the inability to pay often
causes a grass-roots charity effort where people connect and friction
occurs and is managed.  There are always going to be losses.  Afterall,
we are all terminally ill.

I simply do not want to have to pay for someone who smokes for 25 years
and then requires expensive treatement for an acute condition.  People
don't respect what they do not have to pay for directly.  If this 25-year
smoker was placing his friends and family at risk for having to help him
when he eventually develops lung cancer.  They would be more incented to
stop him from the destructive behavior, and he (she) would be incented to
listen to them, or not place them at risk.  Instead who he places at risk
is a faceless pool of wealth.

This is all my opinion, and you should not conclude that I am close-minded
on the issue.  I believe in concepts like transporting your coverage when
your job changes, etc.

Kevin:  I respect you as a friend and a fellow Who fan, so I will not
call you Peewee or Smack or anything like that.  I believe in personal
responsibility and enlightened self-interest, with an emphasis on enlightened.

>Sorry to get so serious on ya.
>Kevin in VT.

Seriousness is good sometimes, and it is very on-topic because Pete surfaced
the issue.

Joe in PA.