Spoken like a true intellectual elitist. I should know, I used to be one in my younger days as well. The sad thing here is that the rest of your post raises very important points that will likely be glossed over as average people – that I’m sure you feel to be of a lesser calibre than yourself anyway, and therefore below contempt (I know this feeling all too well) – begin to see red from that rather hateful intro. Despite what my tone may suggest, I’m not trying to be judgmental. I just want to point out (while being blunt) that, as the old colloquialism goes, you’ll “attract more flies with honey than you will with vinegar.” You have good points to throw out there, so why do you choose to limit your audience (most people will likely skip the rest of your post after reading only the intro) just to make an attempt at declaring yourself an alpha intellectual? The recurring use of such verbal sparring does little to facilitate the spread of otherwise important information.

With that now out of my system, I’ll now turn to my thoughts to the subject at hand. The passing of this bill doesn’t bother me that much. At present, I don’t have health insurance and really had no intention of obtaining it any time soon either since my budget has little wiggle room as it is. While I do hug the poverty line fairly tight, I would feel dishonored to permit the government to pay my way. As a financially responsible person, I realize that mandatory health insurance would only pose a minor inconvenience to me. I’ll simply have to give up a few luxuries in order to make room for it in my budget and spare Uncle Sam the money that could better be applied towards those that are living solidly below the poverty line.

While I’ve always made sure that my kids were covered, I personally didn’t feel that it was necessary for myself since I haven’t had a need to see a doctor in will over a decade now. However, there is no denying that I’m getting older and probably do need to seriously reconsider the matter. If I suddenly did need to visit the doctor for anything serious, the bill for treatment would likely completely sink me financially. Under this light it is easy to see that the minor inconvenience posed by being forced to carry health insurance would far outweigh the risk of becoming financially ruined. After all, it takes money to do the nice things I like to do for my kids to help them develop, and while I can’t do too terribly much for them as things presently stand, I would be able to do even less with massive medical bills hanging over my head.

Having said that, there are a couple of things that do bother me about this bill; namely the amount of time and energy that went into crafting it and it’s projected expense. It does seem that this thing has absorbed an inordinate amount resources from our representatives and has served as something as a distraction while there are other fish that need frying, educational reform being one of them. As our economy continues its shift to a service industry, our educational system has not kept pace. I have talked to long time HR directors that have enlightened me to the fact that they now look at Bachelors degrees as ensuring the same level of educational competence that they used to find in a mere high school diploma. Now that’s not only sad, but also frightening that the educational system has slipped that far! As Joe rightfully pointed out, a more educated population will have a beneficial effect on society as a whole. Fixing this problem has the potential to make a greater impact on the economy (an thus our national debt) more than the money recouped from health care reform could even dream. Hopefully, with the distraction of health care cleared from the agenda, our representatives will now shift focus on how to mend our broken educational system in ways that either slow or reverse this trend.

As to my sticker shock, I’m afraid the government has been spending too much too fast and that’s a very dangerous trend. Not only are we burying ourselves in debt to foreign countries such as China, but we’re quickly setting the stage for a period of hyperinflation should we not reign in the spending habit soon. The cost of this bill will likely only fan the existing flames even more. While it’s well beyond the scope of my posting here to give an economics 101 lesson, I’ll gladly direct any interested party to pick up an economics book to get grounded on the subject before investigating Germany’s economic affairs between the end of WWI and the start of WWII under the Weimar Republic (or more recently, the state of affairs in Zimbabwe) just to understand how bad things can get during a period of hyperinflation. While I certainly hope that things won’t reach those levels of severity, there is no telling how bad it could get should the Fed be required to fire up the presses more and more just so that our country can pay debts as they come due.

And further you really need to understand this issue before you go spouting your mouth off. Do you know why we even got to this point? Why universal health coverage is so important? Why the government needs to ban health insurance companies from denying people for pre-existing conditions and why they need to ban health insurance companies from denying children with preexisting conditions? It is because our health system is so broken that you simply cannot afford health care unless you have insurance. But why is that? Well, capitalism is partly to blame, the insurance companies are partly to blame, and the fact that there are so many that cannot afford insurance. You see the whole system has become a feedback loop for one reason, hospitals are required to provide medical services for anyone regardless of their ability to pay. What happens then? Well an uninsured individual walks into a hospital, gets treatment and skips out on the bill. Just like stores shrinkage into their prices hospitals also factor that into their prices. So the next day you show up with your shiney insurace and the hospital charges the insurance company $500 for two tylenol. Why? Because the guy yesterday didn’t pay for his tylenol so you have to pay for it too, and so does your insurance company. Basically what the means is that because of the way the current system is designed you are already paying for the health care for that uninsured child with a preexisting condition, it’s just not out on the table. But even worse is that as these health care costs rise so does insurance, what does that mean? That means more and more people become unable to afford insurance, which means that more and more people start skipping out on their hospital bills which means that health care costs go up more, which means that insurance rates go up more, which means more people become uninsured, which means health care costs go up again. And what does that all mean? That means that under the old system it was really only a matter of time until only the elite wealthy (1% or less) of the population would be even capable of affording health care and the rest of us will simply have to die. What a great boon for society that would be? You know living healthy people contribute more to our society than dead people do. The real question people should be asking themselves is, what is the benefit to society? The bottom line, a more productive and healthy workforce which ultimately leads to a higher GDP, and an overall higher class of life. Unfortunately I think you lack the intelligence to understand such a high level complex process.

You ask why should we cover all children with pre-existing conditions? And why we should cover people until they are 26? Because, not all pre-existing conditions are fatal. And we currently lag behind the world in education, as is evident by your posting here we have one of the worst education systems in the world. And a well known fact is that unhealthy children do not excel and succeed in school and can actually drag down their classmates and school averages resulting in a loss of funding and a worse education for everyone. Keeping students healthy and in school leads to a better education system, and a more educated population, which leads to more productive workers and an overall better society. Why 26? Well maybe that’s a little excessive, but the same thing applies. We want college educated and beyond people in the work force, people cannot succeed in college unless they are healthy and cared for and are not forced to work three part time jobs while carrying a fulltime workload at school just to afford to pay for insurance.

Of course I don’t even know why I wasted my time as I don’t expect anyone of your caliber to actually understand what I have written here, but maybe someone will. This bill, while not the best thing in the world is a step in the right direction. Hopefully it can be improved upon and enhanced. It is way too late to just do as many of you morons have suggested and start over. We would be here another 50 years debating the issue with no conclusion meanwhile our entire society suffers and our economy slowly slips down the shitter until we become a full blown third world country.

And the boy is pooping in the potty now!!!

Thanks for being the best potty trainer ever, Daddy!

Humph.