The American Spectator : The Check on Healthcare Is in the Mail

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A Further Perspective

The Check on Healthcare Is in the Mail

By Russ Ferguson on 9.24.09 @ 6:06AM

If delivery of U.S. mail is a problem, imagine the delivery of U.S. healthcare.

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The American people don't trust the government to manage their health because their experiences with the federal government have largely been off-putting. Add to that the fact that less than 20%, according to a Gallup poll, perceive the healthcare system is in a state of crisis and that most Americans rate the quality of the healthcare they receive, and even their healthcare coverage, as excellent or good. Then, try to convince the people across America, 70% of which think the economy is our top problem, that we should spend more money to fix what ain't broke.

While policymakers in Washington figure out how to craft and sell a plan, the rest of America is worried about keeping their jobs and making their house payments. They are worried about their children's education -- both now and how they will pay for it as their children grow older. Paying for healthcare is important to them -- money is not free, as it seems to be in Washington sometimes.

Americans across the country have had nothing but bad experiences with poorly run government programs and agencies that operate at a high cost for little benefit. Why should they believe healthcare will be any different?

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About the Author

Russ Ferguson is a lawyer and writer in Washington.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (17) | Leave a comment

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.

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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