A Dragon in Sheep’s Clothing

When I read about the health care bill currently in the Senate, I immediately felt ill:

In a revamped health care system envisioned by senators, people would be required to carry health insurance just like motorists must get auto coverage now. The government would provide subsidies for the poor and many middle-class families, but those who still refuse to sign up would face fines of more than $1,000.

I wonder how much research has or will be done by the men and women voting on this thing. Massachussetts already requires health insurance on its residents, but did anyone ask them if it works?

It’s hard to trust that the politicians will be thorough and diligent in doing what’s best for their voters on this health care insurance issue, considering how quickly the 1,000+ page stimulus plan was voted through. No one had time to read that whole thing before they voted. (And depending on who you ask, it’s full of crap.. I mean, pork.)

But that’s not what really bothers me.

What bothers me is the idea of mandatory health insurance.

It’s not like mandatory car insurance, despite the parallels some have mentioned. A person could always decide to go without a car.

You’re thinking, “That’s not feasible!” In some cases, you’re right. In other cases, it would be a major pain. But the fact remains that there is mass transit, public transportation, cab companies, and carpool groups that all serve as an alternative to owning a car.

I can understand the logic of a car tax. When you own a car, you drive on roads made specifically for that purpose. Your traffic contributes to the wear and tear of the roads, so your taxes go towards their maintenance. (Please, no comments about all the potholes you have to endure.)

But there’s no option with mandatory health insurance. You’d have to get it. The only way you can opt out is to die. So really, it’s like we’re being taxed simply for being living, breathing U.S. citizens living in this country.

In all other ways that people are taxed, there is some kind of give and take, no matter what you think of the system. You put money into Social Security and Medicare so that you can collect benefits in the future. Your taxes go towards public services and the workings of the government to maintain the country.

At least, that’s how it should work.

But mandatory health care is just taxing me because I live and breathe here as a U.S. citizen.

Also, consider that those who refuse to get insurance may be fined. How will the rebels be found out – when they show up at the hospital? Will you have police stationed at the ER now, to fine the uninsured? Or will there be a door-to-door search?

If they will be fined when the healthcare system learns they are uninsured, why would anyone who cannot afford health insurance ever go to a doctor? So really, the problem of folks without health insurance is not fixed by a mandate.

But what scares me even more is what else will be required in the future.

If health insurance is mandatory, will health care become mandatory too? For example, what vaccines would the population be required to accept? There are vaccinations now, but there is still an element of choice in them. And with newer vaccines — for example, the vaccine against cervical cancer — there are plenty of people with valid reasons to object, both morally and physically.

And who decides what health care is sufficient? Will the government approve or disapprove of certain procedures? The possibility exists that the government could lean dangerously close to eugenics, denying extensive treatments to folks who are deemed too old, too impaired, or simply not useful anymore.

Consider this scenario: An elderly patient with cancer could have several more years with a good “quality of life” if treated intensively for several months. He or She might eventually be denied that treatment in favor of palliative care simply because of their age. It would be deemed “inefficient” to treat their cancer; a committee might decide that the benefits to society do not balance the investment.

Where does it stop?

Write your senators, representatives, and local government officials and tell them what you think of the mandatory health insurance bill.

Motorists stew, officials angered by gridlock debacle

The Virginian-Pilot
© July 3, 2009

Drivers found out Thursday just how bad gridlock in this region can get.

A broken water pump inside the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel set off a chain reaction of congestion. On the surface, the broken pump seemed like a tiny cog in the area’s complex interstate bridge and tunnel system, but what happened next was more than anyone had bargained for.

When the bridge-tunnel’s westbound lanes were closed, traffic congestion ended up stretching from morning to evening rush hours on the day before a busy holiday weekend.

While Virginia Department of Transportation crews pumped water out of the tunnel, detouring vehicles spilled onto alternate routes. Traffic at the Monitor Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel backed up more than 20 miles into Chesapeake. The Midtown and Downtown tunnel traffic was stacked up three to four miles into Norfolk, clogging city thoroughfares. The closures of some downtown streets for Harborfest compounded the fiasco.

Local leaders and others expressed outrage over the way VDOT handled the crisis and called the gridlock a harbinger of what could happen during a major evacuation.

….

VDOT spokeswoman Lauren Hansen said crews worked as quickly as possible to remedy what was an unpredictable situation.

….The traffic was particularly rough on cargo carriers.

Meredith O’Keefe, assistant terminal manager for Gilco Trucking Co. in Portsmouth, said truckers, who have to criss-cross the region all day, couldn’t make as many trips .

….Dwight Farmer, executive director of the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization, said Thursday was a “historic day for transportation.”

“If we don’t wake up after today, I don’t know what we will do.”

Transportation, city and business leaders have pushed since the 1990s for transportation improvements to provide additional access to the region and better hurricane evacuation routes. Those projects include another crossing of the Hampton Roads harbor, expanding the Midtown Tunnel and upgrading U.S. 460 to interstate quality.

But they will cost billions of dollars that current funding sources cannot cover. The General Assembly repeatedly has rejected proposals to raise taxes and fees for transportation funding.

….

VDOT’s Hansen gave this account of what led to the tunnel’s closing:

A severe electrical and rain storm rolled across the bridge-tunnel Wednesday night, causing power outages and power surges. Apparently the power issues damaged a water main pump and possibly caused a water main break in the westbound tunnel. The malfunctions caused the pump house to fill with water, eventually overwhelming it and water seeped into the tunnel’s travel lanes.

The water pooled 4 to 6 inches deep at the mouth of the tunnel on the Hampton side. Tunnel staff were unaware of the problem until about 6:30 a.m. The problem was not detected earlier because the alarm system alerting the control room of a failure is electric and also malfunctioned. Water was shut off and the westbound lanes were closed.

“This is internal water – water from pipes around the tube,” Hansen said. Water mains run through the tunnels for fire suppression systems.

Crews worked into the evening using vacuum trucks to suck the water out of the travel lanes and the pump house before they could reach the source of the problem. Until crews can reach the water main and water pump, the precise damage could not be pinpointed. VDOT was able to reroute the water flow to another pumping system and took the faulty pump off line. One lane reopened at 2:30 p.m. and all were reopened by 7:30 p.m. Repairs will continue throughout the weekend, with at least one line closed over night.

“This doesn’t have anything to do with maintenance of the system – this is a break in the system, something that is not predictable,” Hansen said, adding that the pump system has a weekly maintenance schedule.

At the privately operated Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, tunnel pumps also have alarms that sound in the control room, said Robert Johnson, maintenance director.

The pump system, however, is manually checked multiple times a day.

“We put our hands on the pumps usually three times every eight hours to see if it’s running hot, to see if no current is going through,” Johnson said. “We like to have a hands-on rapport with our equipment and not rely on our sensors to take care of things.”

Fraim said the incident was reminiscent of Hurricane Isabel in September 2003, when the Midtown Tunnel flooded because of malfunctioning floodgates.

Read the rest of the article at The Virginian-Pilot>>

Nationalized health care worries me.

Excerpt from AP:

AP – Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., holds up a stack of documents comprising of the health care reform bill …

First up for the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which Dodd is heading in Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s absence, were amendments to improve quality and efficiency. But the debate quickly shifted to more contentious issues including the overall cost of enacting President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority of reshaping the nation’s health care system to bring down costs and extend insurance to 50 million Americans who lack it.

“You could end up with a bill that’s easily headed to a $2 trillion price tag,” complained Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., as he offered an amendment that would require proof that various quality measures such as training and identifying best practices would actually save money.

The committee rejected his amendment, as Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., contended it would be “throwing sand in the gears.”

An amendment by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, would have limited the use of research comparing the effectiveness of various medical procedures — a hot-button issue for Republicans because they say it could lead to health care rationing. It, too, was rejected on a 13-10 party-line vote.

Full article>>