Healthcare reform is misleading

I am getting pretty fed up with this whole health care reform argument. With all of their grandstanding, they have yet to tell us how they intend to lower the cost of health care. It is obvious to me that none of the major players in this game have any idea what they are talking about.

Obama, Reid, and Pelosi all seem to think they are going to fix the country by providing everyone with health insurance. The best way to lower the cost of health care would be to outlaw insurance - all insurance. People would quit suing doctors and other industries if they knew that the only payment they would receive would be what the defendant had, in excess of his home and livelihood. I don't know if most people are aware of this, but most insurance is only bought because the law says you have to have it. The law says you have to have liability insurance to drive a car, the bank says you have to have comprehensive insurance if you're making payments. If you are an employer, you have to carry workman's compensation, which, unless someone is injured on the job, is basically just a redistribution of wealth from someone who works for their livelihood to someone who never breaks a sweat, or a finger. The law even makes you purchase flood insurance if you live anywhere that has ever been under water. Before long, we will all be required to purchase Chicken Little insurance in order to protect us from falling Iranian worms.

As an employer in the construction industry, I had to purchase insurance for my employees at a rate of 15%. That means that for every employee that I paid ten dollars an hour, I had to give the insurance company $1.50. For many years I paid huge sums of money to a little guy who could just have easily been a used car salesman. After the housing market crashed, I told my insurance guy that I wanted what was called a "ghost policy." That policy cost $865 a year, and provided absolutely no coverage, but you could get the insurance company to send a certificate to prospective clients just like you actually had insurance. When I asked my insurance guy for a ghost policy, he looked me in the eye and said, "I hate to sell people that policy, because you don't get anything for your money." I replied that I gave him $18,000 last year and got the exact same value for my money.

I guess you could say I am anti-insurance. I consider it to be really good welfare for people who are too lazy to get out in the elements and actually work for a living. If we cancelled insurance all together, doctors could only charge reasonable rates for their services, or they would never get paid. The cost of health care would really come down. And then, if someone needed more doctoring than they could afford, they could appeal to the generosity of their neighbors. Americans consistently raise billions of dollars to assist foreign countries when disasters strike. Surely the most generous people in the world could help their own neighbors.