Healthcare From Maine

Let me explain a few things to you about Democrats. In Maine we all agree a safety net is necessary. No Republican honestly opposes helping those in dire need. We oppose expanding for things which makes government the only way to survive.

Today President Obama announced the government health care plan. A so called 'pay as you go' plan that I've heard it called. They say it will not remove choice. They say you can choose any doctor you want. They say it will lower costs. Lowering cost is good for the consumer, but not for the one who has very expensive equipment to pay for.

In Maine, we have Mainecare. It has not paid for 2004-2009. The state of Maine had a good "cover some, not all" idea at the start. It has since expanded from those who need it to almost anyone who applies. Then in the past few years Dirigo healthcare went into place. It was a complete mistake. The program they used expensively failed, crashed, lost files, and was just a waste of money. This waste continues.

Today doctors can decide not to accept Mainecare. This is because if they did, the independantly working ones (dentists, therapists, ect...) would not get paid like the hospitals are not getting paid. Blue Hill hospital went bankrupt due to the state not making payments on Mainecare. For Maine, this was difficult because it moved the people in the north even further south to get care in Maine. For Canadians, the travel was made even further (for those needing treatments NOT available in "nationally insured" healthcare Canada.)

Now, Obama's plan supporters say it will not remove choice. Today you can choose not to have insurance. One of the first things they said was that there should be a requirement for people to have insurance of some kind. They outright lied about choice. Even if you can choose your provider (government or insurance companies owned by the government, and insurance companies - Note: AIG as an example) the providers may be limited as they are in Maine. In order to supposedly protect Maine jobs, only Maine insurance companies are allowed. There are only three. Now, for our unionized mills (which happen to be all of them) the lack of competing insurance companies made the companies buy insurance (because of the unions) for all of their workers that is much higher than in other states. This is partly why most mills in Maine have shut down. How long until the plan becomes so massive that nobody can choose anything other than the government plan which they intend, and I quote, "to make competitive with other companies to force lower premiums."

One thing, our nation has the most advanced healthcare technology in the world. This is why Fidel, in what Micheal Moore called the utopian system, had to go to four different countries to be able to get the medical treatment he needed. Since he was dictator of Cuba, we didn't let him come here and so his choices were very limited. However people all over the world are coming to the United States for medical treatment. This treatment, this technology, is not cheap. Just like the latest I-phone won't be cheap, neither will be the medical technology which has to be absolutely perfect to avoid lawsuits and gain approval by the CDC or FDA I am not sure which does medical treatments, probably a mix of both.

If you make premiums cheap to compete with insurance companies, they lower their premiums but the cost of treatment doesn't go down. However, the government has a little bit of help because with Obama's plan the government tells the doctor how much the treatment costs regardless of the staff, equipment, and hours of labor the doctor will use to treat the patient. The insurance companies get a bill from the doctor, not the other way around. So when the insurance companies go under - Maine has three companies. New Hampshire has 21 - the government will become the only choice. Choice will be limited.

They say you can choose your doctor. Today a doctor can refuse Mainecare. Mainecare doesn't pay up. The doctors go bankrupt and go out of business and don't treat people if they can't afford to operate. Obama's plan makes it so doctors can not refuse a patient with Obamacare. This means even if the government doesn't pay because it doesn't have the money that the doctor must treat the person at their own cost getting an IOU as Maine hospitals have been getting for many years now. The doctors go out of business, so the choice of doctors is limited. It becomes limited to those using cheaper equipment that may not be top quality and as advanced as other technologies, and may have fewer support staff who may double check and make sure operations go as necessary. Just think if you want a double-bypass surgery with only the doctor in the room. For those with staff and able to perform, the wait times will increase because there will be fewer doctors available because they go bankrupt. Choose your doctor and government insurance today so you can't get treatment later.

They say it will lower costs. Only because they choose what the operations will cost. The doctors and hospitals won't be able to charge the government, the government will give what it thinks is "fair". I have heard supporters, a few months back a debate topic was whether or not we should apply the French system here, and in France doctors earn a third less than they do here. My opponents would say that it was because doctors in France were glad to do more for less, the doctors were willing to charge France less as an act of patriotism. Looking into it, NO. France gives the doctors what they think is fair. It is easy to make your healthcare cost the cheapest per capita in the world when you choose what you pay your doctor. What they don't tell you is the government in France has to pay for doctor's college in order to help make sure they do not have massive debt to be a doctor. The result is a mediocre trained medical force with only the education the government could afford.

So when the government has the healthcare under its full control, enjoy getting your simple cough looked at today in order to not have the emergency room tomorrow.

Thank you for reading and if you disagree, PLEASE, I beg of you, reply and lets make this a discussion. This has been another production of the ravings of a madman, chirp chirp.