Something else to think about...

Lately, our lives and collective ears have been clogged up with news of a tragically, broken economy and a surprisingly, understandable, "Second-City", political scandal (Does anyone notice that Republican state power bases are never called, "machines"). But, like MC spoke of a few weeks ago with off-shore drilling, the media has been mum on the incoming president's plan for healthcare. And here are our thoughts. The federal government wants to bring as many people under its umbrella, an enormous umbrella, and in turn raise taxes to pay for a behemoth of a program. For with a direct pay for service, single payer system, providers charge for the amount of patients seen. Doctors are accustomed to making a good living. Why else would they spend so long in school? Yes, that was slightly cynical, but rings of truth. Add a conveyor belt-type system with the idea that expensive/advanced and complex procedures would allow providers to charge the government more for treatment on a regular basis, and you would have a nightmare of a future that screams of back-alley, black-market treatments. Goodbye choice, hello European healthcare. This issue is going to take creative, free-market solutions. MC advises all to keep an eye on Governor Bobby Jindal's burgeoning plan for the state of Louisiana. His attempt to redefine the state's Medicaid program could either show that freer markets work or could be ignored by Obama's less than transparent new White House, primed to expand our federal system beyond what the normal citizen could possibly imagine.