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A Further Perspective
The Check on Healthcare Is in the Mail
If delivery of U.S. mail is a problem, imagine the delivery of U.S. healthcare.
As my plane takes off from Washington, D.C., monuments dot the landscape below me. The Capitol stands tall, overlooking the city, a commanding symbol of a government that is truly of, by, and for the people. What happens under its roof permeates our nation’s capital city. What is discussed on the floor of the legislature is then discussed and overheard at dinners, in the streets, and on the train. It is people’s livelihood, their hobby, their interest.
As my plane flies farther west, the landscape changes. There is more green space, which later turns to brown terrain. Every now and again you see a house.
The people in these houses are obviously talking about healthcare, just as people in Washington are. After all, what happens in the legislature has an enormous impact on their lives.
But out here, far outside of the Washington beltway, the conversation is different. People are not talking about the different legislative options. They are not discussing the public option versus a co-op plan. Outside the beltway, the healthcare discussion is binary: government intervention or not?
This conversation has been more than apparent in town hall meetings, which have been volatile not among people supporting different government options, but between those who support any degree of government intervention and those who feel that they can get along just fine without the government’s help. Why is this so hard for Washingtonians to see?
In Washington, the federal government is what people live and breathe. It is hard for people here, especially lawmakers, to imagine a place where dinner conversation is not dominated by politics. A place where, instead, dinner conversation is dominated by concern over the well-being of the family, by the bills that have to be paid, and by the everyday stresses of life.
Outside of Washington, interactions with the federal government are far less frequent, and the local government is what really affects people’s lives. Where people do interact with the federal government, their experience is usually negative — making it understandable that they have doubts about government intrusion into their healthcare, which is literally a life-or-death issue.
The place where most people interact with the federal government the most frequently is the post office. People also often complain about the post office. Mail is constantly getting lost or taking entirely too long to arrive at its destination. Private sector competitors continually prove themselves more reliable and more profitable.
I recently tried to forward my mail while I was away for the summer. The post office — the post office itself — sent me a letter confirming the forward. I received it two months later, along with some two-month-old forwarded mail. The rest was lost.
Nancy Pelosi’s website urges constituents to contact her “if you are experiencing persistent problems with mail delivery.” This is not an isolated problem.
After the post office, the next most frequent contact that people have with the federal government occurs when obtaining or renewing a passport. This administrative process is so inconsistent, inefficient, and impossible to maneuver, that most members of Congress pay staff members to help constituents who have problems or need help navigating the procedures.
While a problem in the private sector is generally easily solved, a problem with the federal government can become a full-time job with no resolution. What if that problem is your health?
“Having a problem with the federal government can be very frustrating,” says Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on his website. That, Mr. Reid, is exactly why Americans don’t want to deal with the Federal Government when it comes to their health and well-being.
Don’t forget the government is already in the healthcare business to a great extent. Medicaid, for example, is a broken system. Private charity has popped up to try and find volunteer doctors because Medicaid patients cannot find medical professionals willing to provide care for them.
Medicare, likewise, does not fully cover the individuals it promises to support. Seniors are regularly buying private Medicare supplemental insurance because Medicare does not provide adequate care. How are we to trust that an overall government healthcare system wouldn’t require private insurance as well?
Letter to the Editor View all comments (28) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Russ Ferguson
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http://spectator.org/archives/2009/09/24/check-on-healthcare
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RCA| 9.24.09 @ 8:57AM
The Postal Service is a monoply, not a government agency.
Brubaker| 9.24.09 @ 4:00PM
That would be the United States Postal Service, a monopoly service of the U.S. government.
S.L. Toddard| 9.24.09 @ 11:43AM
How is "Obamacare is bad" a "Further Perspective"? That's the single, lone perspective ever proffered at AmSpec. I happen to agree with it, but still.
John OB| 9.24.09 @ 12:12PM
The Postal Service is a monopoly by federal statute, and is a government service entity(GSE). Just like Fannie and Freddie.
J W Larson| 9.24.09 @ 12:52PM
OPPOSE health care plans that include new taxes or tax hikes, or fees that will choke the free market and medical innovation. DO NOT PASS ANYTHING WE CANNOT AFFORD! NO SOCIALIZED MEDICINE! OPPOSE GOV'T Control
tj| 9.24.09 @ 2:27PM
IF it is not good enough for the government/unions etc ...it is not good enough for and my family
grant1863| 9.24.09 @ 7:21PM
whenever I am in one of those post office lines I always try to softly say, imagine them in charge of health care. Where upon several heads start nodding and even the Obamaites shake their head a little and think about it.
Liberal Reader| 9.24.09 @ 10:16PM
Your argument is based on a stupid pun. Is that how you guys come up with policy positions?
Well ...
Have you ever seen a Patriot missile find its mark.
That's a "delivery" run by the government, and it works pretty goddamn well.
So where's your dumb analogy now?
ILLiberal Reader| 9.24.09 @ 10:41PM
I thought Patriot missles always missed and just hit innocent civilians.
zidatc| 9.27.09 @ 1:40PM
and those missles are so cheap. I guess we will compare healthcare to a missle, instead of a streatch like Medicare, Medicade, Social Security, they all are hitting their targets too.
ATLmedia| 9.24.09 @ 10:59PM
SHUSH!Don't point out the Patriot was a fiasco,thats the job of the liberal media!
The point is, to bash Govmint, at all costs.*
If RReagan taught us anything, its to oppose denigrate & ridicule the Fed (When run by Dems) & pretend someone else is in charge when conservatives are in power. Patriot missiles may never have hit a target, but as Bush senior (& lil bush) like to point out- w/ our tax dollars- we must build a missle shield (actually a screen door)
or the terrorists win >Something.
*It must be easy (& profitable) to get a letter from Miami to Seattle for 44cents, if the evil Govmint can do it, how hard could it be.
Pingback| 9.25.09 @ 11:14AM
Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : The Check on Healthcare Is in the Ma links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
KyMouse| 9.25.09 @ 3:38PM
Long ago, I worked for a corporation in Manhattan. One day we received a change-of-address postcard that had been sent by a woman in Brooklyn 16 years earlier. It took 16 years to travel, what, a half-dozen miles?
Jim O'Brien| 9.25.09 @ 5:48PM
Democrats and other Socialists believe they know how to run medical care (and everything else) for 300 million people. They have learned nothing from the collapse of the Soviet Union. In fact, Obama's bible is the same as Lenin's. Obama wants revolutionary, sudden change, meaning he wants to dismantle our Constitution, capitalism, and freedom. To think otherwise is naive. He is not stupid, but neither is he clever enough to pull it off.
Wally| 9.27.09 @ 1:39PM
Well, this is all confusing. Anyone here have Netflix? USPS works pretty well. Anyone send letters across their state? USPS works pretty well.
But the funny part is, even if the USPS mail delivery did not work well, it has nothing to do with healthcare... INSURANCE. How many times do people have to remind right wingers? that the proposed reform is of INSURANCE, not healthcare delivery.
The US is ranked #37 in healthcare for its citizens. # 37! The effective way that grownup societies (who don't obsess over irrelevant totalitarian governments in the 1940s) manage healthcare is through government managed healthcare INSURANCE systems. They are less costly and more effective. But if you want to rant about Ho Chi Minh or something, go for it.
zidatc| 9.27.09 @ 1:48PM
That #37 comes from a World Health Organization rating. The WHO unleashes an emotional assault on free markets, saying that governments must hold the "ultimate responsibility" in "defining the vision and direction of health policy, exerting influence through regulation and advocacy, and collecting and using information." WHO dismisses markets as "the worst possible way to determine who gets which health services,"
Just let common sense answer this question. Do you see a mad rush of people leaving America for major medical procedures in other countries? People vote with their feet and their wallets, that is why we pay so much for it; it IS the best in the world.
Margie| 9.27.09 @ 4:03PM
Thank you, zidatc!
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