The State of Healthcare Insurance in the United States

At present, the court fight over the inappropriately named “Affordable Care Act” has taken a new direction.  A court in Texas has declared that the ACA is, in its entirety, unConstitutional.  It seems that the most likely basis for this claim is that the Supreme Court narrowly declared that the ACA passed Constitutional muster because (as Chief Justice John Roberts pronounced) “the penalty for violating the mandate may be considered a tax … and that Congress has the power to impose a tax”.  The mandate in reference is that individuals must purchase health care insurance.  The error, on the part of the Honorable Justice John Roberts, was that the ACA was initiated in the United States Senate, and the Constitution requires that all tax legislation originate in the House of Representatives.

That said, the issue has changed since the imposition of the restrictive legislation.  Quantum changes have taken place in areas such as robotic, minimally invasive surgery, DNA alteration of genes so as to correct defects, and advanced methods of disease diagnosis.  Not the least effect of these changes are some increases in life-expectancy across groups.  It has been nine tears since the imposition of ACA.  the initial design would have been at least a year prior to that.  What changes have taken place during that decade?

Just within the last six months, the ability to detect future cancers has improved enormously.   DNA analysis has moved forward, taking shorter intervals to analyse pathology markers, robotic surgery has improved outcomes for many, including those with spinal injuries and joint replacement, to say nothing of improved handling of isotopes used in radiation therapy, so as to protect the operator..  These are the costs of medical advances, for which someone must pay increases.

At eighty years of age, do you want to be denied a knee replacement, or a hip replacement?  Do we, as a society (and through some government imposed program”, have the right to say “no”, you cannot have the latest miracles of medicine (because we cannot afford them).

Living well, by which I mean to be free of pain and able to move about freely, seems like a reasonable “right”.  But, who pays for that “right”.  The answer is not “the government”.  It may well come from whatever health-care provisions are extant.

Today, there are those who scream out, “We can pay for this.  We can just write a check.”   For those airhead Millennials, who have been schooled in college by their Socialist professors, the “Federal government” is an endless supply of money for which to pay for endless healthcare programs, guaranteed annual incomes, free education through college, post-graduate, and doctoral degrees, etc.  They are mindless robots of socialism, who will vote in future elections, and drag this country down in to a socialist sewer.  They may well win.  The only solution may be to increase the voting age to 60 years.

© Copyright 2019 Alan J. Pedersen  All rights reserved.

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