What is the biggest folly of USA Government Health Care Legislation?
Three Chicago Tribune recent news articles report how Illinois will require insurers to incorporate insurance programs to include costs for drug addiction treatments and charge non-drug users to pay for their treatment. While this appears to be a Utopian, empathetic, and compassionate government action, what it may also do is serve to promote drug addiction, in my opinion.
The purpose of this post is to call attention to the need for wisdom to provide incentives in healthcare insurance that promote responsibility for personal foolish lifestyle choices.
King Solomon
11Rescue those being led away to death, and restrain those stumbling toward the slaughter. 12If you say, “Behold, we did not know about this,” will not He who weighs hearts consider it? Does not the One who guards your life know? Will He not repay a man according to his deeds? (Proverbs 24:12-13)
What’s My Point?
The Illinois legislation, similar to Obamacare, required insurers to provide full coverage for all health issues, and that is the major reason it has become far costlier than what was presented to Congress to approve. The new Illinois laws will and place the cost burdens to pay health costs for drug addicts on non-drug users.
The drug addiction problem has plagued the USA for over a century and will continue forever if we remain on the same path of folly if we refuse to rescue and restrain people by making them aware of the folly of choosing recreational drugs and make others responsible for their foolish choices.
In the Source Links below is a previous post based on another Chicago Tribune article titled, as we emphasize with addicts do we normalize drug culture, reports, “As the fear mounts, many Americans – including parents, lawmakers, health professionals, and policymakers have resounded with empathy toward drug addicts.”
We know about the harmful effects of drugs, yet we do not make him or her responsible for their deeds. Instead, the government pass laws to make others pay.
In other words, the government knows the folly of recreational drugs but fails to guard those who do not know Instead of repaying a man according to his deeds, makes make others pay for the folly of others. The same folly has been proven over time to be the biggest cause of failure in socialist governments.
This not wise governing because of what we know about recreational drugs.
What Do We Know?
The following are some Excepts of what Government knows about recreational drug users along with source links.
- An estimated 24.6 million people in the United States used some kind of illicit drug in the past 30 days, according to the latest government statistics. About 9.4 percent of all persons age 12 and over are involved in the use of illegal drugs or the nonmedical use of prescription drugs.
2a. Health Care Costs for Heroin is a 3.0 scale. Marijuana is 1.7
2b. An essential feature of drugs of abuse is that they encourage repeated use.
2c. Drugs harm society in several ways—egg, through the
various eff acts of intoxication, through damaging family
and social life, and through the costs to systems of health
care, social care, and police.
- If you have no insurance or are underinsured, we will refer you to your state office, which is responsible for state-funded treatment programs.
- An analysis suggested that the total costs of prescription opioid use disorders and overdoses in the United States was $78 billion in 2013. Of that, only 3.6 percent, or about $2.8 billion, was for treatment.111
- In 2018, More than 115 people in America die every daydue to accidental misuse of these drugs–that’s one person every 12 minutes–and “the opioid epidemic” is the term used to describe this health crisis.
- Virtually all study respondents agree that the failure to
regulate the supply to coffee shops and cannabis cultivation is the source of many
of the current negative side effects of the Dutch cannabis policy –from the
involvement of criminal enterprise to the lack of quality control. Over the years,
the influence of criminal organizations in cannabis cultivation and the supply of
coffee shops have not subsided, despite enormous investments in law enforcement.
(PDF) Drug Policy in The Netherlands. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317167175_Drug_Policy_in_The_Netherlands[accessed Aug 30 2018].
(PDF) Drug Policy in The Netherlands. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317167175_Drug_Policy_in_The_Netherlands[accessed Aug 30 2018].
“The U.S. health care system is not the ‘fairest of them all,'” the authors write, “At least from the viewpoint of those who use it to stay healthy, get better, or manage their chronic illnesses, or who are vulnerable because of low income and poor health.”
What’s My Point?
The main reason for the failure of neo-socialist leaning Democrats or communist government is there are no incentives to act and be responsible for the wise or foolish choices we make in life.
Anyone who studies the history of communism and socialism failures will readily see the same pattern develop over time.
For politicians that are promising universal health care in the USA, perhaps they should also disclose how much it will cost.
What to Do?
We need to begin with honest reporting about recreation drugs. For example, physicians know there is medical proof that a significant percentage of recreational marijuana use will lead to hard drugs use over time.
Why is this information not being broadcast daily to warn those being “led to slaughter” as explained in the above King Solomon wisdom proverb is the biggest example of government folly, in my opinion?
In other words, mandatory reporting laws are not being used effectively by our government health agencies.
Mandatory laws to provide free broadcast time for all licensed broadcast avenues such as television, radio, twitter, google, etc. should provide daily reports that honestly report the risks of drug use and of addiction to the public.
Same in every school grade from first through college to promote honest reporting of the risks on a regular basis.
Also, insurance providers should discount insurance rates to people who live a wise healthy lifestyle choice. For example, nonsmokers, average weight, moderate alcohol, non-drug addicts, HIV, etc. etc. In other words, provide incentives to make wise healthy choices and charge higher fees for those who prefer to make otherwise choices.
In My Opinion
What Illinois Governor Rauner did when he signed the bills to require Illinois insurers to provide coverage for drug addiction was to switch from the State having to pay for drug addiction to the people who do not use drugs.
There will always be a criminal element in drugs distribution. Somehow, we need to make people aware of the risks of recreational drugs use. Making them responsible for their choices will be one avenue. Making them aware is another avenue.
The USA government should provide incentives for making wise rather than foolish choices.
Regards and good will blogging.
Source Links
Chicago Tribune
–
No comments:
Post a Comment