Nationalized Health Care Through the Back Door.

Well the stimulus bill passed in the Senate. What is really going on in Washington is shameful. They are using the economy as an excuse to "back door" health care reform. The language in this stimulus bill regarding health care reforms puts the federal government in charge of determining just who can have what procedures, treatments, or medications. Most of the Senators did not even read all the language in this bill before voting on it either. And In this day and age of rampant identity theft, I am not enthused about the prospect of having all of my medical records stored on some server somewhere that is connected in any way online. I would much rather have just a paper trail because it is much less susceptible to theft than online records. If banks, credit card companies, and big box retailers can't keep your electronic data safe, how can we expect hospitals to be any better at safeguarding data? And so much more is at stake here than just credit or identity. The information in your medical records could be used to blacklist, blackmail, or outright ruin a person should it find its way into the wrong hands.

I am sorry, but I will be the first one to say, "I told you so" when it starts happening. Electronic medical records is a bad idea. It would save money, but the trade off in potential for damage from a breach in security is unacceptable. Once again unintended consequences will overpower any good intentions of such legislation.

And this really does miss the whole point anyways; that health care is not broken and so doesn't require any fixing. It is the insurance industry that needs to be reformed, not health care itself. Keep health care private. Legislate insurance reform instead. What a novel idea; fix what is broken, do not meddle with what is working!

This brand of socialism has no place in a free and democratic society anyway. Our whole society is predicated on free market capitalism. Why should the health care industry be any different? Open and free competition breeds the innovation and resourcefulness that provides the best standard of care possible. The free market system produces the fastest course to providing best practices because the demand for the highest quality care is prevalent and demand is what drives any market. Can you imagine how bogged down care would be if big brother were having to hold a committee regarding which path to take? Not very efficient in terms of lives saved, perhaps they would save some money, but patient mortality will no doubt increase drastically with bureaucratic wrangling and red tape.