Obama's Health Care Plan

I caught only bits and pieces of Obama's press conference about his health care plan last night. This morning's analysis says there were no big surprises and some give him only an average grade. He needed to knock this issue out of the park and my impression is he failed to do that.

That may not be entirely his fault. Health care is a thorny issue which doesn't lend itself to an easy sell so I doubt anyone could have made a thrilling case for it. There's no real crisis to be solved - yes, millions of Americans lack health insurance but millions more are perfectly happy with the way things are. And it's not entirely clear why those millions lacking insurance don't have it. Choice? Circumstances? I'll grant you that a good many people lack insurance because of their circumstance but I also know that between Medicare, Medicaid, CHIPS, and the outreach programs that huge hospitals fund as part of their non-profit mandate, very few people should be slipping through the cracks. That means a large majority of those without insurance are without it by choice and that's hardly a reason to radically revamp the current system and fund it with tax increases on the middle-class.

What's that you say? Obama has promised not to raise taxes on the middle-class to pay for this? Take a closer look at his promise: he won't fund his program primarily with a tax increase on the middle-class. Got him some wiggle room there. Besides, the definition of middle-class changes from argument to argument. There's not enough "rich" to increase taxes on to fund this program so the taxes will have to come from where the majority of revenues always come from: the middle class. So get ready if this passes.

No, the solution for this "crisis" lies where most solutions can be found: within ourselves and not the government. And, like with most solutions, it may call for sacrifice. You may have to buy you and your family health insurance and give up on the premium cable package or driving a nicer car or going on vacation or night-clubbing or buying a carton of cigarettes or, well, you name it. You might also have to take better care of yourself and when something does happen you may have to gut out the minor medical demands and save your visits for something that's a little more serious than a head cold. You know, do those things this country had to do during other hard times which we always managed to muddle through.

Make no mistake, health care plan is purely a political move. It's about government power getting into the decisions you make about health care. And when the government starts meddling in your personal life, nothing good can come from it.