Is it truly too late for American individualism?

What just happened should scare the hell out of us.

Healthcare has officially become an entitlement.   You have whole communities full of government junkies and melted away personal responsibility. Elected bureaucracy remains the pusher of socialized (welfare) medicine, and you cannot put enough locks on the safe to keep it out.

Preexisting conditions will remain a mandate on insurers. Even with added penalties for lapses in coverage going forward, accepting, and maintaining responsibility for oneself and one’s family has apparently been cemented as a function of government.

The most humble beginnings

It started simple enough decades ago, with the accepted forms of ‘insurance;’ Social security, Medicare, and for the emergency needs of poverty stricken folks, medicaid.  Soon, it was forcing insurance providers to include pregnancy protection for men, and autism support for parents who won’t stay at home with their own children.

Michigan in total, has added 655,635 to it’s medical welfare rolls as of last Monday.  This taxpayer funded boondoggle known as “Healthy Michigan” was enacted under a ‘Republican’ controlled legislature, and signed into law by a ‘Republican’ governor. And it is sufficiently generous.  The thought of taxpayers providing insurance welfare for those who are 33% above poverty thresholds is maddening.

So is anyone at all surprised at the inability of our national house to simply repeal the socialization of our insurance desires?  Majorities of Republicans exist in both house and Senate, and the President is also a Republican.  Repeal (and replace, apparently) is the chant that GOP contenders for these offices have given for 7 years since the abomination known as the ACA, was passed by 100% Democrat dictate.

Yet once elected, too many already campaigning politicos cry about pre-existing conditions, and even the new president is so benevolent that he insist on providing help for those who are prematurely afflicted and uninsured. Could we realistically expect a return to what the constitution provides as a framework for our government; limited and specific duties [that do not include universal health care coverage]?

The cold hard truth.

Here’s the rub.  We all have a pre-existing condition.  We are all aging, we gradually weaken, and some have conditions, flaws, lifestyles, etc. that move us along to that end into the great beyond.  Heaven or Hell is our destination based on our acceptance of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.  We will die, and be reborn anew ..or not.

The path of least resistance is the default for anything, and humans are no exception to this rule.  If you put the slop in the trough the pigs will come, open the gate at the rodeo the bull lurches out, give away money, and there are those who will immediately be standing in line without a thought.

Free universal healthcare; the most expensive giveaway in the world from all reasonable analysis, has apparently become the path of least resistance for legislators, providers, and the recipients. No matter the consequence of long term addiction to it, mankind is assuming an intellectual condition comparable to that of water deciding to flow down instead of up.

The default path, the default attitude, the default to fear and selfishness under the pretense of compassion and dignity.

Enough voters wanted guaranteed access to health care, the Democrat party legislator cared about his/her job, the insurer wanted forced participation in their industry, and doctors and hospitals wanted guaranteed payment.  In short, this is how we found Obamacare to be “the law of the land.”

Soon enough, states wanted in on the action and reached out for the brass ring on the political merry go-round.  What they got was the hook however, and are now crying about what will happen when the [federal taxpayer] money runs out.  <<–THAT, dear reader, is what “addiction” looks like.  The lower costs of absolutely free markets have become fantasy, and even worse, involve pain that no one is willing to bear, if only temporarily.

Indeed, it may well be too late.

While there are a number of  tax/penalty provisions of Obamacare being cut, it does not eliminate forcing of insurers in carrying those who already require expensive treatment.  As a service or marketable good (yes, that is exactly what it is), there ought to be no forced participation on any level.  Individual mandates will be gone, but supply side requirements remain. The all-you-can-eat buffet of medical care is not conducive to good health or health provisioning practices. Such practices require a step away from ‘the default.’

Where it ends.

It seems Krauthammer may be proven correct in predicting a single payer (government) system not too long into the future. Frankly the failed courage of the GOP to completely annihilate Obamacare at it’s roots will prove to be a mistake:

“Look at the terms of the debate,” Krauthammer explained. “Republicans are not arguing the free market anymore, they have sorted accepted the fact that the electorate sees healthcare as not just any commodity. It’s not like purchasing a steak or a car. It’s something that people now have a sense that government ought to guarantee. And because of that, even Republicans are trying to say, ‘oh we’re not gonna lose that many, oh yes you’ll be covered if you have a pre-existing condition.’ The terms of debate are entirely on the grounds of the liberal argument that everybody ought to have insurance.”

“Once that happens,” he concluded, “you’re gonna end up with a single payer.”

Expectations. Entitlement. Addiction.

All said, the US House plan is not terrible however.  It is certainly not the pass-it-to-see-what’s-in-it flaming bag of dog turd Obamacare. But it still relies on government involvement, government subsidies, and bizarre federal overreach not authorized by our constitution, nor benefiting free and open commerce. It defends the currently accepted vision of compassion as a ‘right’ to services and to the benevolence of others via government.

It’s an infection that has grown too rapidly absent Republican leadership in 8 years time.  A moldy festering bandage, that once-upon-a-time should have been ripped off, has become the sore itself that will kill the spirit of our once great Republic.

And there isn’t a 12 step process big enough to fix it.