By John Lehman

We are being told that the government is going to insure health care for everyone through major changes to the system of health care insurance. They are also promising to correct everything from energy dependence to financial bailouts. But, if we look at the details in the legislation for these programs, when they allow them to be seen, we find programs designed to take authoritarian control of nearly every segment of our lives in this society.

As far as having universal health care, yes most of us would now have health care. However, the down side is that this health care system will be much different from what we have become accustomed to. There will be severe limitations on expenditures for such things as tests and medicines and also based on such issues as age and perceived physical condition. Medicare will be strongly restrained. Specialists will be harder to get, if they are even available.

Do not take my word for this, look on the Internet at the legislation, or call your legislator and ask them for a copy. It is difficult reading, but if you take the time and effort you can find many statements which remove your freedoms and options. What’s being proclaimed as a fix for our broken health care system is just the opposite. They will take the greatest health care system in the world and tear it apart and rebuild it as government-run “health care light” and you should hope that you don’t need some sophisticated medical assistance.

The limitations are driven by several factors. First, the revenue required to fund this kind of program is massive; second, the economy is still on a downward spiral; third, they have several programs now in existence such as Medicare, Social Security, the U.S. Postal Service and others that are being destroyed by unrestrained fraud and abuse. The health care program will be another juicy plum for fraud and abuse.

If they will not even try to stem the bleeding of funds from these other programs, why should we believe this one will not be even worse? The drain of funds through these poorly managed programs and many more are dragging our economy down to such a degree that we are even now barely able to pay the service on our national debt, much less pay the principal.

When you can no longer make the payments on your debt, what happens? One term is foreclosure. If our creditors say pay up or else, what would the OR ELSE be, surrender? We could easily become a subservient third world nation, but that seems to be the intent of our current administration. If we want to solve our problems, many of them will require great resources for research and development as well as construction.

With a nation in poverty where do you suppose we would get those resources, the government?

It is not the function of government to provide everything for everyone. Besides, the government does not have any resources of its own, only what they take from the citizens. When everyone is getting equal shares of the resources from government, who is going to work to provide the taxable resources to pay everyone?

This is an utterly senseless idea. It really sounds nice to those who are looking for a free handout. And if there are enough of them there will be plenty of votes for the idea.

If you are concerned about the future of our nation and your descendants, call your congressional representative or senator and tell them not to do this. It’s not just health care legislation but many others that are being funneled through Congress that will deny our rights and reduce our chance for safe and secure future.



Lehman, a Meadville resident, is a retired chief master sergeant of the U.S. Air Force. He can be contacted at jalehman@zoominternet.net.