Senator Barack Obama says "it's wrong that 46 million in this country are uninsured."   He is right on that one.   There are nowhere near as many as 46 million uninsured people in this country.   This number is kicked around by the media as if it is documented but actually only represents one extrapolation of an improperly taken poll.   A more accurate number is probably half that.

He also says, "Americans pay $15 billion in taxes to help care for the uninsured."   That is also about right.   Another way of putting it would be those who do not have privately obtained insurance are covered by the taxpayers.   Or, the taxpayers provide insurance for the uninsured.

Where Obama and several other candidates for President are quite wrong is where they think the way to change the current situation is via a government run health insurance program which is mandatory for all of us.   That would end up costing the taxpayers far more than $15 billion and would result in value judgments regarding your and my healthcare made by bureaucrats against whom none of us would have any recourse.

Today if an insurer denies you treatment or coverage for treatment, you can take them to court or before state regulated boards to argue against their judgment.   If this private system were replaced with a socialistic one, you can bet any decision would be final before you had a chance to even gasp.   There would be no opportunity to argue that the vast majority of physicians believe the treatment is right or justified.   Instead some ex-nurse would look at your vital statistics and decide whether you got treatment or not.   Maybe that day she just broke up with her boyfriend or maybe she despises someone with your same name or maybe she thinks you deserve to die for one reason or another.   There'd be no opportunity to even question her judgment.   And if you needed something like brain surgery, you better hope the line for it is short.   You better hope there are no "unofficial" policies against that kind of surgery for smokers, high BMIs, or people your age and older.   If you don't believe any of this is possible, you had better do your homework.   All these things happen frequently under the socialized medicine programs of the countries after which we will model ours.   You kid yourself if you don't believe me and your dishonesty may one day cost you your life.

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama