America to Politicians on Health Care: Keep the Change!

The message coming from grassroots America to the DC politicians in town halls across the country and is loud and clear:

We don’t want government-run health care. This is change we don’t believe in–so don’t vote for it, or you will do so at your own peril. I’m proud of the American people for rising up and speaking out on this issue over the past few months. Every opinion poll shows that everyday Americans believe we’re going a wrong direction –with the average margin on all health care polls being 54%-46% against the government getting involved.  A new American revolution has begun that could bring great renewal and blessing to a nation that’s been torn between two opinions for at least a generation. Those two differing opinions, or worldviews, are ultimately what the health care debate is all about.

On one side is the secular or humanist worldview which is promoting government health care. Why? Because when you reject the God-factor, the true basis of human rights, and our Creator’s defined roles for individuals and spheres of society, a God-substitute must take its place which is normally an enlarged state. The call for universal, government-run health care might take place under the guise of compassion and caring, but it’s ultimately about power–the government controlling the masses through assuming the ultimate Provider role that enlightened civilizations have always ascribed to the God of the Universe. This is the road to tyranny–as evidenced by every socialist revolution in history.

The American Revolution of 1776 represented the opposite revolution–an amazing configuration of the Judeo-Christian view of God and government in human society. According to biblical faith, it is God who is our Provider–and through personal faith, morals, character, ethics, community, creativity and industry, we can reap the blessings of his provision in every area of life. The early American concept of the God-given rights of men and limitations on human government, limiting its role to the proper sphere of protection of not provision for its citizens, was the Christian expression of political and economic ideas. That view created the greatest amount of freedom and prosperity in the history of the world. This is the surest path to liberty or human freedom.

But as Thomas Jefferson wisely stated during those days, “the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.” In the 20th century a rebellion against Christian values began to eat away at the foundations of the American family, work ethic, sexuality, and finally the role of government in society. The engine of this secular revolution was the government schools and universities which began to toss out all remnants of the faith and character that made America great. The secularists knew what Abraham Lincoln had predicted in the 19th century, that “the philosophy of the schools in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.”

Which is where we stand today. For a generation, the teaching of the government schools has left out God, morals, freedom, limited government, the basis of human rights, etc. and replaced these sacred pillars with an all powerful-and-providing centralized government. They’ve even invented the “right” to health care–and it is the responsibility of the government to provide it through a single payer system.

But thanks be to God!–the American people are waking up and realizing that their very civilization is at stake in this boondoggle called national health care reform. For the past couple of months, the American people have been speaking out loudly in town halls, e-mails, letters to the editor, and various rallies around the nation that we Americans don’t want to go down the road to socialized medicine. Here are some of the many reasons for the outcry:

• Both the House and Senate bills under consideration are loaded with ambiguities and lack of details–yet the bills are being “rushed” through Congress. At the very least this is bad government process which will give us very dubious results. Read Chuck Norris’ recent commentary on this.
• The “government option” will, of necessity, lead to to many people leaving their private policies for the government plan which will decrease competition and choice–thus raising costs.
• The senior citizens of the nations–including 70,000 people who left the AARP in July over their disastrous flirting with the national health care plan–understand that the government take over of health insurance will be the end of Medicare as they’ve experienced it.
• The “crisis” under which the national health care balloon has been floated is way overblown. During these necessary months of debate we’ve learned that actually 80% of Americans are satisfied with their current health care plans and don’t want to see them changed.
• The number that have been used to justify the move to socialized medicine is that there are “47 million uninsured people out there that need insurance.” That number has now been thoroughly analyzed and soundly rejected. The reality is that nearly ten million of this number are illegal aliens, fifteen million are those who live above the median American income of $46,000 and simply choose to spend their money on other things, and another ten million are eligible for current government programs but don’t sign up for various reasons. That leaves under nine million citizens that can’t afford health coverage out of 304 million Americans–or 3%. Hardly a crisis–simply an opportunity to improve our help for the poorest among us.
• The arrogance of our current political leaders has stunned the electorate. Rep. Anthony Weiner D-NY  told an August town hall meeting that he didn’t care what his people wanted–he knew what was best and would vote for government care. Now that’s representing the people! It appears that the current administration and Congress might just be the most arrogant collection of leaders that the US has seen since the Nixon administration (arrogance is non-partisan). After the August recess, the Senate is considering passing the “hell care bill”, against the will of their constituents, using a parliamentary procedure called “reconciliation” which avoids the normal sixty votes necessary to stop a filibuster. So much for representative government.
• A national health care plan will give the Federal Government control of an additional sixteen percent of the multi-trillion dollar US economy. The folks aren’t buying this power grab of their liberty. We don’t need another “Freddie Mac of Health Care” to bring down our medical system as they did to the housing and real estate industries.
• Everybody knows by looking around the world that socialized medicine or national health care options increase the cost of health care through government waste and lack of competition and lead to the greater rationing of goods and services. The UK and Canada are prime examples. We don’t want to repeat their mistakes.
• The people’s greatest concern right now is the burgeoning federal deficit–which is due to the dubious 787 billion stimulus package, the omnibus bill filled with thousands of earmarks, and the refusal of the current administration to use tax cuts to create jobs and economic recovery. The people know that nationalizing health care will add trillions of dollars in the coming years to an already precarious national debt load.
• The mammoth 1000 page bills floating through the halls of Congress are loaded with both labor and insurance company perks, will lead to tax-payers footing the bill for abortions (against their will and conscience), and contain provisions that–thank you, Sarah Palin!–look very much like “death panels” to most of us. It was interesting to see the liberal press ridicule the former VP nominee on this one while at the same time the Senate quietly pulled out the sections dealing with “end-of-life counseling.” If this wasn’t about pulling the plug on Grandma, why the deletions?

Many diverse voices are making sense and generating momentum for rejecting national health care in America. The best article I’ve read in the past month was featured in the Seattle Times written by Dave Herbold, the retired COO of Microsoft and Scott Powell, the director of capital markets for Clarus Capital. You can read this excellent article here. It concludes with these words:

“More bureaucracy, greater dependence, higher taxes, more debt, fewer choices, lower quality. Get real. Fool us once with the stimulus plan, shame on us. Fool us twice, shame on our political leaders. This is less about reform and more about collectivist political power to redistribute wealth, expand federal government control, weaken individual and states’ rights, and create a permanent power base through entitlements and dependency.”

“It is time to take the first step in restoring the primacy of personal choice and responsibility. It is time to say “no” to Washington elites and “yes” to the people who deserve real reform based on a competitive system with incentives to contain costs while assuring choice, quality, and flexibility.”

Amen and amen.

So what is needed to improve health care in the best health care system in the entire world? Here are a few positive suggestions that have emerged during the debate:

1. Pass extensive tort reform currently affecting up to 16% of all medical costs. Doctors need to be set free from fear-based practice so that they can truly “do no harm.”

2. Allow health plans to go national like car insurance and other services. This will greatly increase competition and lower costs for all.

3. Do away with the politically-driven state mandatesthat drive up the costs of local insurance policies. In the state of Washington there are nearly fifty medical insurance mandates that stifle choice, competition, and the cost of various medical policies. One size doesn’t fit all. You don’t need the same coverage in your twenties that you do in your eighties.

4. Adopt the best practices of private business such as utilized by Whole Foods in the business sector or Group Health in the medical portion of society.

5. Encourage personal, portable Medical Savings Accounts through a variety of tax incentives.

6. Take responsibility for your own health and that of your family through good eating habits and lifestyle choices.

And continue to prayerfully and respectfully speak out until government-run health care is a thoroughly discredited topic of a wise and free people.

After the August recess, there will be an attempt to jam this legislation down the throats of the American public in both the house of Representatives and the US Senate. So, before your representatives return to Washington D.C., make sure they understand that you want them to read your lips on the subject of national health care.

If they don’t, make sure they read your votes in 2010 and 2012.