Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland was involved in a Town Hall meeting and was asked by a person about health care and why the government would fine him if he did not get a policy. Robert Broadus laid it out for Cardin:
“I decided not to get the health insurance. That’s working out for me because I’m able to save that extra money and give it to my family members and use it on myself. Senator Cardin, I want to know are you going to tell me an individual…that I have to buy health care or else you’re going to fine me $2,500 every year I don’t get it? Our founding fathers assured us we have a Bill of Rights and I want to see you uphold that,” Broadus said in an increasingly emotional voice and to scattered applause. WUSA9
Cardin’s answer was a scary one because he basically stated that the guy would have problems if he had a serious medical condition. This could be true but Cardin made it sound as if the guy was a freeloader who would not make arrangements to pay his bill.
Cardin responded by asking Broadus what would happen if he became sick, broke a bone, had a car accident and ended up in an emergency room.
“You don’t pay. You are part of the population that shifts its costs over to a person who does pay, and they’re paying for you,” Cardin said.
Explaining how hospitals have often to absorb those costs, Cardin said many hospitals would chose simply to leave the community.
“I just think the overriding public interest is to require you and everyone in this country to have health insurance,” Cardin said.
Cardin said that it was in the public interest to require everyone to have health insurance. Why? Cardin’s lame excuse about hospitals and individuals who pay absorbing the cost falls flat. Hospitals and people who pay already absorb a great deal of cost. Hospitals also absorb the cost of government run Medicare and Medicaid. The government sets rates and never reimburses the total cost. This is one reason that patients have a plethora of tests and procedures. It is done for two reasons. The first is to prevent a lawsuit for some undiscovered problem and the other is to jack up the bill so the reimbursement is higher.
Additionally, with government run health care or a public option, if you will, everyone pays the bill. Well, the people who pay taxes pay the bill. There is no difference between the cost being spread out in the case Cardin describes and the cost being spread out among the populace in order to cover everyone.
There are plenty of ways to solve this problem that do not involve the government getting involved. Government does not have any money and it does not make money. Government extorts money from people who produce and then redistributes it to those who don’t. Washington DC only consumes, it does not produce.
Cardin is out of touch with reality because he is like the rest who want complete control over our lives. They already hold the elderly hostage with Social Security and Medicare and now they want to expand their reach to hold everyone hostage.
It is all about control over our lives and nothing more.
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